Mandee Luers Joins Softball Coaching Staff
8/13/2012 12:00:00 AM | Softball
KENT, Ohio –Head Coach Karen Linder announced the addition of Amanda Luers as an assistant coach to the Kent State softball staff on Monday. Luers, who will primarily work with pitchers, joins the Golden Flashes after spending the previous three seasons as pitching coach at IPFW.
Linder believes Luers' proven track record for success and her ability to bring out the best in her student athletes on the field and in the classroom made her an ideal and welcome addition to the program.
"I'm very excited to have Mandee join our staff," Linder said. "She's played in the Mid-American Conference and she's coached against a number of MAC schools so she's very familiar with this level of play. Mandee did incredible things at Fort Wayne. And last year, they had a lot of success against MAC schools. She's young, but has gained a lot of valuable experience at IPFW and Belmont."Â
During her time at IPFW, Luers helped develop a dominant pitching staff that resulted in a record of 102-48-1, the best three-year run in school history and Summit League Tournament appearances in all three seasons. Her pitchers held the best staff ERA in the conference in both the 2010 and 2012 seasons. This past year all three Mastadon pitchers were ranked in the top 75 nationally in ERA. As a team, IPFW ranked 15th in the nation with a 1.69 ERA.  Over Luers' three seasons, the Mastodons had six All Summit League First-Team selections including Summit League Pitcher of the Year Courtney Cronin, with seven players earning second team honors.
Along with success as a coach, Luers was a standout pitcher at Marshall, which included two seasons in the MAC. Â She carried a career record of 21-9 with 148 strikeouts and seven saves. Â She then spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Belmont until her move to IPFW. Luers has served as a pitching instructor at both the Nashville Baseball Training Academy and MVP Sports.
Luers graduated from Marshall with a bachelor's degree in sports management and marketing in 2007 and a master's degree in sports administration at Belmont in 2009.
Luers replaced Amy Densevich, who now serves as an athletic academic counselor at Kent State.
Kent State opens fall competition Saturday, Sept. 8 with a scrimmage at Ashland.
