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Bloomsburg University Softball

Head Coach Jan Hutchinson

One of the winningest coaches in Division II softball history, Jan Hutchinson enters her 23rd season as head softball coach at Bloomsburg.

Three years ago, Hutchinson became the first woman ever to gain 1,000 combined collegiate coaching victories in a career. Also coach of the Bloomsburg field hockey team, Hutchinson has a record of 757-160 in softball and a mark of 389-53-20 in field hockey. Overall, she is 1,146-213-20 (83.8%).

The softball team has been to the national championship tournament every season since 1981, the only school to accomplish that feat. The Huskies have played in more NCAA tournament games than any other Division II school and are second in tournament wins.

The Huskies have been to the championship round five of the last 10 seasons, twice finishing as the national runner-up with losses each time in extra innings in the national title game, two third-place showings and a fourth-place finish. The Huskies also won the 1982 AIAW national championship.

Bloomsburg holds 16 NCAA Division II individual, team or championship records.

In only her fourth season, Hutchinson won the national championship "double" in the 1981-82 school year, claiming the field hockey title in the fall and the softball championship that spring.

Bloomsburg has dominated Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference competition in the two sports, winning 12 of the last 17 softball championships and 10 field hockey titles.

In field hockey, the Huskies have won nine national championships, including four straight, the latest this past fall as Bloomsburg capped a 19-0 season with a win over Bentley in the NCAA title contest. Bloomsburg is the only Division II team to ever win four straight national championships in field hockey.

The Huskies also won NCAA field hockey titles in 1998, 1997, 1996, 1993, 1987, 1984, 1983 and 1981 and have finished national runner-up eight times.

Field hockey has had 33 players earn 57 All-American awards, and 23 softball players have gained 40 All-American honors. Each team has been to the NCAA playoffs each year since 1981 and Hutchinson has been honored as national coach of the year in each sport, most recently the 1998 field hockey Coach of the Year. Hutchinson has also coached one softball player and six field hockey players to National Player of the Year honors.

Hutchinson's coaching talents have not only helped those as student-athletes, but several of her former players have gone on to coach at the intercollegiate level. At Bloomsburg, she has former All-American performers as top assistant coaches in both field hockey and softball. Others have gone on to coaching jobs elsewhere, such as Janelle Breneman (Head Softball Coach, East Stroudsburg), Jean Buskirk (Asst. Softball Coach, West Chester) and Kathy Frick, former head coach at Goucher College and current head coach of Bloomsburg University lacrosse).

Two former softball players have moved to the professional ranks. Janelle Breneman was a member of the Georgia Pride during the 1998 season and Marty Laudato is a member of the Tampa Bay Fire Stix.

A 1971 graduate of East Stroudsburg, she also earned a master's degree in education from the school in 1979. Prior to Bloomsburg, she initiated the women's physical education program at Blair Academy and served as head coach for field hockey, basketball and softball.

She has been inducted into the Hall of Fame at both Newton (NJ)High School and Sussex (NJ) County.