The Observer, September 12, 2008
Volume XLI, Issue 3
Amodio steps down as softball coach
Jennie Amodio, CWRU's softball coach since 2001, resigned on Aug. 1st. Amodio was only the second softball coach in Case history. Erin O'Neill, an assistant women's basketball coach at Kenyon College, has been hired as an interim head coach, though an official announcement has not been made.
Amodio, who guided the Spartans to CWRU's first-ever NCAA postseason appearance in 2001, will finish the year as a physical education instructor. Amodio resigned on Aug. 1st, but had been contemplating the move for some time before that.
"It was her decision," said senior right-handed pitcher Ruthe Sagartz.
"There are no hard feelings," said senior infielder Angel Rice.
Athletic director Dave Diles said that he was surprised that Amodio stepped down, which he attributed to her desire to take her career in a different direction.
O'Neill has experience in Div. III athletics. She was a standout in softball at Kenyon. In 1999 she had the fourth-highest batting average in school history (.407) as well as the fourth-best on-base-percentage (.460). One year later, she scored the second-most runs in school history (31). In 2001 she broke the school record for RBI. She was a graduate assistant for John Carroll's softball program.
"She strikes me as very genuine and has the desire to take the program in a positive direction," said Rice.
She will have a tough task ahead of her; there are only 10 women on the team, and only two of those are upperclassmen.
The team was involved in finding a replacement. The athletic department brought in three candidates for the team to interview. Afterwards, they were asked for input on each, though the final selection was left up to administrators. "It was nice that they valued our input," said Sagartz.
