University of Minnesota Athletics
Two Former Players Earn Coaching Positions
8/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
A pair of former University of Minnesota Softball players recently landed coaching jobs at NCAA Division I institutions. Megan Higginbotham, a 2007 graduate, will join the staff at Florida International in 2009-10 as a graduate assistant, while 2008 graduate Colleen Powers joins the staff at Central Michigan this year, also as a graduate assistant.
"We are all very proud of both Colleen and Megan on their recent hires," said Golden Gopher head coach Lisa Bernstein. "They were both outstanding representatives of the University of Minnesota and the Big Ten Conference and will do an outstanding job as graduate assistant coaches."
Higginbotham, a Tallahassee, Fla. native, returns to her home state to begin her coaching career. She will be joining a team that went 31-29 last season and placed fourth in the Sun Belt Conference with a 15-13 record.
If her coaching career is anything like her playing days, Higginbotham can expect a wealth of success. At the end of her tenure at Minnesota, she was among the leaders on several career charts. With a .353 career batting average, Higginbotham ranks fifth all-time in Golden Gopher history, while her 22 career home runs rank her third.
With 71 career walks, 69 career stolen bases and 996 career putouts, she also ranked fourth in each respective category. Her finest season at the plate came in 2005 when she posted team highs of 62 hits, 29 RBI, 12 doubles and seven home runs while posting the fifth best single-season batting average in program history, with a .411 clip.
In her final season in the maroon and gold, Higginbotham again led the Golden Gophers as they finished 24-22 overall. She paced the team with a .311 mark at the plate while also posting team highs of 47 hits, 35 runs scored, 15 stolen bases, 11 doubles, and a pair of triples.
Powers, a Minnetonka, Minn. native, heads east to Central Michigan for her first coaching job. The Chippewas struggled to a 12-31 record a year ago, but ended the season on a high note, winning three straight against Mid-America Conference foes.
Powers helped the Golden Gophers to a 29-16 record in her senior season, including a 9-7 mark for a fourth place finish in the Big Ten. She appeared in 41 games as a senior, while starting in 39 contests. She closed the season with 14 hits, 13 runs scored and eight runs batted in. That 2008 team won six of their last seven games in the regular season, before the season came to a close in the second round of the Big Ten tournament, falling to eventual champion Northwestern.
In her junior year of 2007, Powers started all 41 games she played in as the Golden Gophers posted a 24-22 mark. She banged out 17 hits and scored 12 runs while posting a perfect mark in the field.
When speaking on the future careers of her two former players, Coach Bernstein said in closing, "We want to wish them both the best of luck, and we know they will do an excellent job!"
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