Softball
- Title:
- Volunteer Assistant Coach
SIU alum Mark [quote]Skip[quote] Cosgrove begins his 21st season as a member of the Saluki coaching staff and has coached some of the best athletes and teams in Southern Illinois history.
Cosgrove has also been a part of the Saluki staff that earned four straight MVC Staff of the Year awards (2002-05).
Cosgrove has served as an assistant coach for SIU[apos]s regular-season Gateway (1991) and Missouri Valley Conference (2004 & 2005) championships, a Gateway Tournament title (1991) and all six of the Salukis[apos] NCAA Tournament teams (1991, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007).
During the previous 20 years, Cosgrove has watched the Salukis build a 708-337-2 record with a .678 winning percentage.
Heading into his 21st season with the Salukis, Cosgrove has previously worked with the outfielders, and is now primarily responsible for working with the team[apos]s short game.
A career high light during Cosgrove[apos]s tenure was in 2007 when the three starting outfielders committed only four errors with 175 put outs and seven assists for a .962 fielding percentage.
From the 2007 outfield, Tiffanie Dismore and Krystal Stein earned post-season honors. Dismore was named Second-Team All-MVC, and named to the All-MVC Scholar-Athlete Team and CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District V. Stein was also named to the All-MVC Scholar Athlete Team.
Cosgrove recently retired after 29 years of service at SIU[apos]s Plant and Service Operations, where he coordinated the university[apos]s ADA compliance projects.
Cosgrove holds two degrees from Southern Illinois, earning a bachelor[apos]s degree in environmental sciences in 1974 and his master[apos]s in outdoor recreation in 1986.
A Peru, Ill., native, Cosgrove has been involved with youth sports for more than 30 years, coaching softball at various levels. In 1991, he guided his 16-and-under ASA team to a seventh-place finish at the state tournament.
The next year, his 18-and-under squad placed fourth in state competition, and qualified for the Midwest Regionals.
Cosgrove and his wife, Patty, who works at SIU, have two children.
