The 2004-05 academic year marks Melody Cope's sixth season at the helm of the St. John's softball program. Over her five years on the Queens campus, Cope has compiled a 137-139 record, increasing her career record to 357-268-4. Cope currently ranks second in school history in wins and has three of the top-five all-time winningest seasons. Aside from the victories on the field, she has brought a new field, recruits from throughout the country, academic success and a budding softball program to the University. In August 1999, Melody Cope became the sixth coach in the history of St. John's softball. In her first season guiding the Red Storm, she led the team to a 26-24 record, the first winning season since 1992, and a fifth place finish in the BIG EAST standings. Cope's 26 wins were the most by a first-year coach in the program's history. Since then she has compiled two 30 win seasons, including a 30-28 overall mark last season. The Red Storm's nine BIG EAST wins last season were the most in the program's history. Prior to coming to St. John's, Cope served as head coach at the University of North Carolina - Greensboro from 1991-1997. During her tenure there, she compiled a 220-129-3 record, and finished with the most wins by any softball coach in the school's history. Cope currently boasts an impressive overall coaching record of 329-242-4 (.576). In her final four seasons at UNC-Greensboro, Cope led the Spartans to four Big South Conference championships. She brought UNCG to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1997. In addition, her squads averaged 30 wins per year, including a UNCG school record of 49 in 1995. Thirteen Spartans were named to All-Big South Conference teams in her six years. Cope was named Big South Conference Coach of the Year in 1994 for her outstanding accomplishments. Among active Division I softball coaches, Cope ranks 55th overall and fourth among BIG EAST coaches in winning percentage at .576. With 329 career wins, she ranks 61st overall and third among BIG EAST coaches in career wins. Cope's student-athletes have succeeded both on the field and off. For the second straight season, St. John's was named a National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Academic team. The 2002 team finished third in the Division I category with a 3.424 team GPA. Over the past two years, 16 Red Storm student-athletes have been named NFCA All-America Scholar Athletes. Student-athletes had to acquire a 3.5 GPA for the 2002-2003 year in order to qualify for the individual honor awarded by the NFCA. Eleven members of the 2003 squad were also named BIG EAST Academic All-Stars. Last year, two members of the team were inducted into the President's Society, the most prestigious association at St. John's University. Off the field, Cope's program philosophy includes having student-athletes give back to the community. Since Cope's arrival at St. John's, the softball team has been active in the community. The team visits St. Mary's Children's Hospital annually dressed in costumes to spread Halloween cheer to the patients. At Christmas time the team decided to sponsor two families through the Adopt-A-Family program, in lieu of Kris Kringle among themselves. The Walk for Breast Cancer Awareness and the Hunger Walk are some of the other activities the team has participated in under Cope. During her time at St. John's, Cope has expanded her recruiting to include national and international efforts. The current squad is made up of student-athletes from across the country, including California, Ohio and New York. Cope feels her national recruiting efforts will help her team to compete on the national level. Cope graduated from the University of North Carolina - Wilmington in 1987 with a bachelor of arts degree in physical education. She played catcher for the Seahawks during her undergraduate years. Cope earned her master of arts degree in physical education from Gardner-Webb College in 1990. Cope currently serves as the president of the BIG EAST softball coaches committee.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
