Softball Hires Christy Connoyer as Assistant Coach
06/22/2005 | 12:00:00 | Softball
June 22, 2005
By Jeff Honza
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Southern Illinois head coach Kerri Blaylock announced today that Christy Connoyer will join her staff as an assistant coach. Connoyer replaces Buddy Foster, who was named head coach at Bradley University.
"I'm happy we were able to attract a veteran assistant like Christy," said Blaylock. "She's a tireless worker, an excellent recruiter and has a great knowledge of hitting and infield defense."
Blaylock and Connoyer have crossed paths many times along the softball trail, and their relationship goes back to when Blaylock was an assistant coach at Southeast Missouri State.
"I recruited her out of high school," says Blaylock. "I followed her extensively throughout her playing career at Notre Dame. When she was an assistant coach at Purdue, we ran into each other a lot on recruiting trips and at coaching clinics."
A native of Bethalto, Ill., Connoyer comes to SIU after spending the 2005 campaign as head coach at the University of Tulsa.
"I'm excited to be a part of the Saluki program and this will be the closest I've been to home in a long time," said Connoyer. "I look forward to working with Kerri. She and her program have had a lot of success and this is a great opportunity for me."
In her only season at Tulsa, Connoyer led the Hurricane to an overall 31-30 record and a third-place finish (11-7) in the Western Athletic Conference. She also guided Tulsa to its biggest win in school history, a 6-2 victory over then-ranked No. 5 Oklahoma.
Prior to Tulsa, Connoyer served as an assistant coach at Purdue for eight years. During that time, she helped the Boilermakers to 266 victories and seven winning seasons.
Connoyer also worked primarily with hitting and defense, coached first base, coordinated team travel and recruiting, monitored student-athlete progress, planned various community service activities and was involved with several camps, clinics and speaking engagements at Purdue.
At SIU, she will coach hitting and infield defense and serve as the Salukis' recruiting coordinator among other duties.
Connoyer's strong coaching background succeeded a prestigious playing career at the University of Notre Dame.
A four-year starter, who played shortstop and second base from 1990-94, Connoyer led the Fighting Irish in hitting as a freshman and RBI as a junior. As a senior, she was co-captain and part of the first Irish softball team to earn an NCAA Regional berth in 1994. Additionally, she garnered first-team all-Midwestern Collegiate Conference honors all four years.
Connoyer graduated from ND with a bachelor's degree in government and international studies in 1994. She then obtained her master of arts in teaching through the University of Portland, ND and the Alliance of Catholic Education (ACE), a two-year teaching service project.
She was named to ND's Dean's List, won an Americorps National Service Grant and earned the National Catholic Educational Association's C. Albert Koob Award. Connoyer was also a recipient of ND's Service and Leadership in Education Award in 1996.
Connoyer will meet Blaylock in Colorado to start recruiting next week, and then head to Carbondale for SIU's pitching camp in July.