Softball Canada – (Ottawa, ON) Softball Canada is pleased to announce the addition of ten (10) coaches to its Women’s National Team Coaches Pool. The ten individuals will join returning pool coaches Melissa Basilio (Pickering, ON), Erin Cumpstone (Saskatoon, SK), Rob Guenter (Victoria, BC), Keith Mackintosh (Melfort, SK), Haylee O’Neill (Oakville, MB) and Dave Paetkau (Abbotsford, BC). Mark Smith (Falmouth, NS) will return as the Women’s National Team program head coach, while Mackintosh was named head coach of the Junior Women’s National Team in October.
 
The ten (10) coaches added to the Women’s National Team Coaches Pool are:

 

First Name	Last Name	Hometown
Lonni	Alameda	El Dorado Hills, CA
Greg	Bouchard	Winnipeg, MB
Gord	Collings	Delta, C.-B.
Russell	Cooper	Titahi Bay, NZL
Trevor	Ethier	Saskatoon, SK
Melissa	Finley	London, ON
Dan	Joly	Montréal, QC
Chris	Jones	Oshawa, ON
Tiffany	Jordan	Guelph, ON
Megan	Timpf	Port Dover, ON

“I am very excited about the additions we’ve made to our national team coaching pool. They are quality people and knowledgeable teachers with a tremendous passion for the game” stated Mark Smith, Head Coach of the Women’s National Team program. “Success in any organization begins with its leadership and I look forward to the learning and sharing that will come from working with this great group of coaches.”
 
Lonni Alameda coached with the Women’s National Team from 2004 to 2008 and attended the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. She has also excelled at the NCAA Division I level as a head coach leading Florida State to Women’s College World Series appearances in 2014 and 2016. Alameda brings experience and excellent interpersonal skills to the role of Pool Coach.
Greg Bouchard is a high school principal by profession and a former men’s fast pitch pitcher from Manitoba. He has served as an NCCP Master Course Conductor and CANpitch Master Pitching Instructor for Softball Manitoba for many years. Bouchard is NCCP Competition – Development trained.
 
Gord Collings is a former high school principal and coached Team BC’s women’s softball program to a gold medal at the 2013 Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke, QC. He began coaching at the minor girl’s level in 1992 and he currently serves as head coach of the UBC women’s softball program. Collings has assisted at a number of Women’s National Team regional identification camps. He is also a member of Softball Canada’s Coaching Committee and is NCCP Competition – Development trained.
 
Russell Cooper is formerly from New Zealand and served as an original member of the CANpitch program steering committee. He played men’s fast pitch at the ISC level for several years in the United States and has coaching experience at the NCAA level with the Washington University in St. Louis. He works with several university level camps and clinics each year and in 2016 he coached the Chicago Bandits U16 PGF national championship team.
 
Trevor Ethier is a former Men’s National Team athlete who was a member of the 2003 Pan Am Games gold medal winning team and also a member of the 2009 WBSC bronze medal winning team. He currently leads a high school softball academy at Tommy Douglas High School in Saskatoon and coaches a U16 girl’s travel ball team in Saskatoon. Ethier is an NCCP Level II certified coach.
 
Melissa Finley was part of the Women’s National Team program from 2003 to 2005. She has coached at the NCAA level since 2007 at the University of Pennsylvania prior to moving on to Colgate University where she has served in a head coach role since 2012.
 
Dan Joly is the Canada Games coach for Team Quebec and has been a coaching leader in the Quebec Rebelles program since 2002. He is a Competition – Development trained coach and has coached teams to three Canadian Championships at the U21 age category since 2013. In 2015, he attended the Women’s National Team final selection camp as a guest coach and has also served as a scout at U16 and U18 Canadian Championships on behalf of the Women’s National Team program for the past four years.
 
Chris Jones is a former Men’s National Team player and captain, having played on numerous ISC and Men’s Canadian Championship teams. Jones is extremely knowledgeable in the area of defensive fielding and is a skilled instructor on short game skills on offense. 
 
Tiffany Jordan was a member of the 2003 Pan American Games team that won silver in the Dominican Republic. She was involved in the National Team program from 2003 to 2005. Jordan attended Youngstown State University in Ohio and after graduating, coached at the school from 2008 to 2014 before moving to the University of Central Florida in 2014.
 
Megan Timpf is a former Women’s National Team athlete and captain. She retired after winning a gold medal at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. Timpf played on the 2008 Canadian Olympic Softball Team and has been an assistant coach at the NCAA Division I level at three different universities since she began coaching in 2010.

-SC-

For more information, please contact:

Gilles LeBlanc
Manager – Marketing and Communications
Softball Canada
O: (613) 523-3386 ext. 3105
C: (613) 795-1996
gleblanc@softball.ca