SPRINGFIELD, OHIO—Wittenberg Director of Athletics and Recreation Dr. Gary Williams has announced the hiring of Shannon Schaub as the university's new softball head coach. Schaub replaces Kennedy Haynes, who stepped down in May after serving as the Tigers' interim head coach in 2018.
Schaub comes to Wittenberg after serving seven seasons as an assistant coach at Division II Ashland University, and one at Heidelberg University. Schaub served as Ashland's pitching coach while remaining heavily involved in planning and directing practices. Schaub never suffered a losing season as an assistant, competing in the conference tournament all eight seasons while making an appearance at NCAA Regionals five times.
"We are excited that Shannon has accepted our offer to become our softball coach. Shannon has a tremendous balance of softball knowledge and relationship-building skills that we all felt was a great match for our team and current situation. We have a very talented returning roster and strong program thanks in large part to our previous staff and have high expectations for them," said Williams.
"We all believe strongly that Shannon is the right person to continue to build on this foundation and take our program and our women to the next level both on the softball field and off."
Schaub played softball at Ashland as well. She began her career as a pitcher and later moved to first base. During her senior year back in 2009, she hit .357 with 31 RBI and belted 11 homers—the third highest single-season home run total in school history. Schaub had 13 career homers total.
During her career, she was honored as the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference pitcher and player of the week. She was a starter on the 2009 team that advanced to the NCAA Division II playoffs. As a senior, Schaub was first-team All-GLIAC and first team all-region.
"I'm very grateful for what Coach Matthews and Haynes have done with the Wittenberg softball program. Their success in the NCAC is something to be very proud of and my hope is to continue that winning mindset. I believe Dr. Williams' and his whole athletic department has created a standard of excellence and I'm very blessed that the search committee identified those qualities as my strengths when hiring for this position," said Schaub.
Schaub is originally from Nova, Ohio. She played softball at Crestview High School, where she was named the Ashland Times-Gazette player of the year and the Firelands Conference pitcher of the year. In her high school career, she hurled four no-hitters and had 482 strikeouts while batting .379.
Wittenberg softball went 24-17 in 2018, winning the regular season NCAC crown after going 15-1 in conference play. The Tigers played host to the NCAC tournament for the second consecutive season, bowing out in the tournament semifinals.