Fast-pitch softball begins this year

From Staff | gargoyle@flagler.edu

Flagler has added a new sport to its roster: fast-pitch softball, a move that has been on the agenda since Flagler made the switch to NCAA Div. II.

Most teams in the region have softball teams in place, and Flagler needed to make the addition. The team will begin play on Feb. 1 against Florida Tech.

To get the program rolling, Flagler converted a baseball practice field into a softball field this summer and named Kristen Atkinson head coach. A 2004 graduate of the University of North Florida, she was the assistant coach at Nova Southeastern University last season. And now she is tasked with building the program completely from scratch.

“My first priority was to start recruiting,” she said. “My focus was going to be to get kids familiar with Flagler College. When it comes to the softball world … Flagler is not one of the schools that they [softball players] research because we didn’t have it.”

Atkinson has tapped into a network of high school and college coaches to get the word out about the new program.

“It was really mainly about networking and getting the recruits in,” she said.