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Adrienne Clark
Adrienne Clark '05 was named the head coach of the Hofstra Softball program in July 2021, and is entering her fourth season with the Pride in 2024-25.
The Pride qualified for the CAA Softball Championship for the fourth consecutive season in 2024 with a 17-10 mark in the Coastal Athletic Association in Clark's third season at the helm. Becca Vaillancourt (first team), Julia Apsel (second team), and Olivia Malinowski (second team) received All-CAA postseason honors during the 2024 campaign, while Vaillancourt was named NFCA All-Northeast Region First Team and Apsel collected All-Northeast Region Second Team honors.
Hofstra returned to the top of the CAA in Clark's second season in charge in 2023, guiding the Pride to the CAA Softball Championship title and an NCAA Tournament appearance for the first time since 2018. Four Hofstra student-athletes received All-CAA honors during Clark's sophomore season in the dugout, including Kasey Collins (first team), Chelsea Manto (first team), Meghan Giordano (second team), and Alanna Morse (all-rookie). Additionally, Manto was named NFCA All-Northeast Region Second Team, while Giordano and Becca Vaillancourt collected All-Northeast Region Third Team honors, and Manto was named All-ECAC. In the classroom, the Pride finished the 2022-23 academic year with the 11th-highest team grade-point average in Division I, while Collins, Giordano, Angelina Ioppolo, and Nikki Mullin all received CSC Academic All-District® recognition.
Clark impressed during her first head coaching stint in 2022, as she posted a 13-6 Colonial Athletic Association record and clinched the No. 2 seed in the CAA Championship, marking the best CAA mark for the Pride since 2018. Four Hofstra student-athletes earned All-CAA recognition during Clark's rookie season, including Chelsea Manto (first team), Meghan Giordano (first team), Amanda Maffucci (second team), and Julia Apsel (all-rookie team). In addition, Manto (first team), Giordano (third team) and Maffucci (third team) all went on to collect NFCA All-Northeast Region honors. In addition, Giordano and Devyn Losco collected CoSIDA Academic All-District® honors.
Prior to Hofstra, Clark has brought extensive coaching experience having coached at five different NCAA Division I institutions during her 16-year coaching career. Before arriving in Hempstead as head coach, Clark was an assistant coach at Purdue University for the last two seasons. Clark helped the Boilermakers to 33 wins while on staff in West Lafayette, Indiana. She oversaw and directed the team’s defensive strategies and helped facilitate all operations of the program.
Prior to that, Clark spent five seasons as an assistant coach at the University of Connecticut. With Clark on staff with the Huskies, UConn increased its win total from the previous year in four of her five seasons and had nine different honorees on postseason American Athletic Conference teams. Clark served as Connecticut’s head pitching and catching coach during her tenure in Storrs.
Clark previously spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Hofstra from 2012 to 2014. During that time, the Pride advanced to the NCAA Tournament in all three seasons, including as Colonial Athletic Association Champions in 2012 and 2013. The 2012 team is most remembered for its remarkable run to the NCAA Super Regionals, winning 42 games and capturing the NCAA Los Angeles Regional along the way.
Clark got her coaching career started at the University of Delaware, where she spent four seasons (2006 to 2009). She oversaw all pitching development and helped guide three players to All-CAA honors and the staff to the lowest earned run average in the league in 2006. She then made the move to Columbia University in New York, New York, where she spent two seasons. Nine players under her tutelage garnered All-Ivy League accolades and she also served as an associate professor of physical education.
An exceptional two-way player during her playing career, Clark’s name is littered throughout the Hofstra record books as she is seventh in pitching appearances (97), eighth in earned run average (1.77), eighth in innings pitched (407.2), ninth in wins (39), and ninth in strikeouts (260). Clark also totaled 71 hits during her stellar career, including a 2004 campaign in which she ranked second on the team with a .305 batting average.
The 2003 Hofstra softball team captured a pair of wins in the NCAA Tournament, marking the first time that the Pride had ever picked up two wins in NCAA Tournament play. The exceptional 2004 season would see Hofstra win four games in NCAA Tournament play and fall one win shy of advancing to the WCWS. The Pride won games against #12 Auburn and #7 Stanford at the NCAA Regional, with the win over Stanford marking the second-highest ranked opponent the program had ever defeated to that point.
Clark also trained with the United States Bobsled & Skeleton Federation for three years (2011-14) as she attempted to qualify for the Olympic Games as a skeleton athlete.
Clark earned her Bachelor of Business Administration, majoring in marketing, from Hofstra in 2005. She received her Master of Science in sports management from Columbia.
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