BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Head softball coach Tom Cole announced the completion of his coaching staff for the upcoming season with the addition of Lani Ries and Kelly Roberts.
"I am very excited about both Lani Ries and Kelly Roberts," stated Cole. "Coach Ries played for me for four years and was my assistant coach for three seasons before leaving only to get married and take a position at Bowling Green State in Ohio. To say that we are blessed to have Coach Ries coming home is an understatement. Coach Roberts had an outstanding pitching career at both Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Tusculm. She has a total of five years of coaching experience and was instrumental in the success of Wingate's pitchers this past season. I am definitely looking forward to working with both Coach Ries and Coach Roberts"
Ries will be the associate head coach, while Roberts will serve as an assistant coach and work with the team's pitchers. Both Ries and Roberts come to Gardner-Webb from in-state NCAA Division II school Wingate University.
Ries spent seven seasons (2013-2019) as the head coach of the Wingate Bulldogs while Roberts was her assistant during the 2019 campaign.
Ries returns to Gardner-Webb after a successful playing career (2001-2004) under Cole and a stint as an assistant coach (2005-2007). In addition to coaching, during the 2006 and 2007 seasons, she placed professional softball for the Michigan Ice, a team coached by Cole during Ries' final season with the squad.
As a player, she is mentioned an impressive 17 times in the Gardner-Webb record book including eight times in the career records section. Ries ranks in the top-10 in hits (172), at-bats (674), runs (102), triples (9), walks (69), stolen bases (63), games started (218) and games played (219). Among single-season record holders, she is featured nine times and is tied for first in fielding percentage (1.000, 2002) and both games played and games started (63, 2004).
As an assistant coach under Tom Cole, Ries guided the Runnin' Bulldogs to the ninth best turnaround in NCAA history in 2007. The Runnin' Bulldogs increased their win total by 23 wins from the previous season with 35 victories in the 2007 season.
As a head coach, she won her 200th game as Wingate's leader during the 2019 season and departs Wingate with a career record of 210-148-1, including an 83-59 record in South Atlantic Conference play. She led the Bulldogs to three NCAA Division II tournament appearances in the past seven years, including the 2019 season and back-to-back appearances in 2013 and 2014.
In 2019, the Bulldogs finished 32-19 overall and 11-9 in SAC play. The Bulldogs opened NCAA Tournament play against Lincoln Memorial and were eliminated by Anderson one day later.
After a 38-win season in 2014 and a third-place finish in the South Atlantic Conference, Ries' squad earned its second consecutive at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament and posted two wins in postseason play, both against No. 24 Lenoir-Rhyne.
In 2013, the Bulldogs won 12 of their last 14 contests en route to an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, which was the program's first trip to the postseason since 2009. In the 2013 tournament, the Bulldogs earned a win against Mount Olive while falling in a pair of one-run games to No. 4 Armstrong Atlantic.
Prior to her time at Wingate, she served five seasons as an assistant coach at Bowling Green State University and worked with the outfielders while focusing on hitting and base running. She also served as the first and third base coach and was responsible for recruiting and scouting reports in addition to monitoring the academic progress of the players. During two of her five seasons at Bowling Green, the team ranked in the top-five in the country academically (2010 and 2011) and she helped engineer the biggest turnaround in the country in 2012 as the Falcons won 24 more games than the previous season.
Ries earned her B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Coaching and added a Master's in Sport Science and Pedagogy from GWU to her resume in 2007.
Kelly Roberts spent the 2019 campaign as Ries' assistant at Wingate with previous coaching stops at the University of Rio Grande (2014) and Upper Iowa University (2015-2017). She will work with Gardner-Webb's pitchers.
In addition to three collegiate coaching positions, Roberts also spent time as a camp advisor and team coach for USA Preps Softball Camp in Palmdale, Calif.
During her time at Upper Iowa University, she worked with the team's pitchers while also heading up fundraising, community engagement, recruiting, field maintenance and academic progress reports. She helped Upper Iowa take Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) tournament crown in 2016, and off the field, the team won the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Academic Award in 2016 and 2017 with team GPAs of 3.76 and 3.80 respectively.
A four-year student-athlete, Roberts began her college career at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and led the team to back-to-back Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) titles and NCAA Division II tournament appearances. With Roberts in the circle, the Crimson Hawks advanced to the 2011 NCAA Division II World Series, and Roberts earned All-PSAC honors as a sophomore.
For her final two seasons, Roberts transferred Tusculum University. She led the Pioneers to a SAC title in 2013 and was named to the All-SAC Tournament Team. In 2014, Roberts broke the Pioneers' single-season and career shutout record and was named Honorable Mention All-South Atlantic Conference.
Roberts earned her B.S. in Sport Management from Tusculum in 2014 and received her M.A. in Athletic Coaching Leadership from the University of Rio Grande in 2016.
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