Meet the Coaches
Janelle
Breneman, Head Coach
Bloomsburg `94 - Always
teaching and always encouraging her players, Janelle Breneman expects this to
be a turn-around season for the East Stroudsburg softball program.
Breneman worked hard
with an almost all freshman team last year and has seen the players make giant
strides in the off-season and in pre-season practice. She also has added a
strong freshman class and is looking forward to an enjoyable and successful
season.
The fifth-year coach knows
success. She was an outstanding player on championship softball teams at
Bloomsburg and continues to compete in high-level competition during the
summer.
She was a member of the
Georgia Pride of the Women’s Professional Fastpitch Softball League in 1997 and
1998. Last summer, she competed for the Power Play Class 'A' women's fast pitch
team out of Lancaster. She helped the team to a berth in the ASA nationals in
Springfield, Mo.
As ESU coach, her first
team posted a 21-18 record, the school’s first winning season in four years,
and placed third in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern
Division. In 1997, the squad just missed the .500 mark at 21-22. The last two
seasons, the teams were winless during their annual Florida trip and despite later
improvement finished 12-28 in 1998 and 5-31 last season.
At Bloomsburg, Breneman
was chosen the NCAA Division II All-America second team shortstop as a senior
in 1992. She was a three-time All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference first
team selection. A four-year starter, she set a school and conference record for
most games played with 197. She had a career batting average of .331 and belted
34 doubles, four triples and ten home runs, drove in 112 runs and scored 145
runs.
Breneman led the Huskies
to a runner-up finish in the NCAA Division II Softball Championships in 1991
and to third-place finishes in both 1990 and 1992. She played on three PSAC
championship softball teams.
While completing her
undergraduate degree in Adult Health, Breneman began her coaching career as a
student assistant to Jan Hutchinson, Bloomsburg head coach for 21 years and a
1971 ESU graduate. In 1995, she was head coach at her alma mater, Ephrata High
School, guiding the team to a 16-5 record and berths in both the sectional and
divisional playoffs.
Breneman serves as the
vice president for the PSAC softball coaches’ executive committee and is a
member of the ECAC Division II softball committee.
Breneman has coached the
ESU team for two years Her first team posted a 21-18 record, the school’s first
winning season in four years, and placed third in the Pennsylvania State
Athletic Conference Eastern Division. Last year’s squad just missed the .500
mark at 21-22 and was fifth in the league. Her overall coaching record is 42-40.
Jeanine Gunther
Assistant Coach Second
Year
University of North
Carolina `97 - Jeanine Gunther, a summer teammate of Head Coach Janelle
Breneman the last two years, joined the East Stroudsburg coaching staff last
season.
Gunther played four
years and started three as a catcher for the University of North Carolina. She
gained All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors after leading the Tarheels to the
ACC regular-season title as a junior. She played in 197 games during her career
and had a batting average of .273 with 140 hits in 515 at-bats. She scored 46
runs and drove in 63.
Gunther earned a
bachelor of arts degree in English in December, 1997. She then began her
coaching career in 1998 as a volunteer assistant at North Carolina. She was a
catcher for the Georgia Pride of the Women’s Professional Fastpitch Softball
League (WPF) in 1998 and played for Power Play Class 'A' women's fast pitch
team out of Lancaster last summer.
A native of West Chester,
Pa., Gunther grew up in Virginia Beach, Va. where she played basketball, field
hockey and softball in high school. She also serves as assistant coach of the
women's soccer team at ESU.
Melanie Carrozza
Assistant Coach First
Year
East Stroudsburg '99 -
Strength and conditioning expert, Melanie Carrozza is the graduate assistant
working with the softball program. She is taking courses to earn a master's
degree in Sport Management.
Carrozza worked with the
players on fitness and weight training programs during the off-season. She
designed personal exercise prescriptions for the players to increase strength
and to get them in condition for the upcoming season.
She also has
concentrated on improving the players' speed and quickness to make them more
explosive and dangerous on the base-paths. Head Coach Janelle Breneman thinks
this is the fastest ESU team she has ever coached and expects the Warriors to
be able to steal more bases and take the extra base on hits in the gaps.
Carrozza also monitors
the team study halls. She has designed a team web page which will be linked
with ESU's 'Warriors on the Web' page at www.esu.edu
The Newton, N.J.
resident worked two and a half years as a personal trainer for Xercise, Inc. in
Chester, N.J. She designed exercise programs for the company's clientele based
on fitness evaluations and health history forms.
Updated3/13/00