Georgia Highlands names first softball coach
Georgia Highlands College has appointed native Georgian Melissa
Wood as women’s softball coach. She comes to GHC from North
Idaho College, where she served as assistant softball coach and
physical education instructor.
While there, she helped the team break the home run record with 79
in one season. She also coached four National Junior College
Athletic Association all-conference team members and a NJCAA
all-region team member.
Before going to Idaho, she coached as a graduate assistant softball
coach and assisted with intramural experiences at Berry College
while she was earning her Master of Education degree. Despite her
challenging schedule, she graduated with honors from Berry.
She also helped build the Viking team from the ground up for its
inaugural season in 2009. By its second year, Berry’s team
had its first winning season, improving in a number of statistical
categories, including batting average, slugging percentage, on-base
percentage, fielding percentage, walks and stolen bases.
She began her college career in 2004 playing for the Flor-ida State
University team, where she was a two-year starting catcher for the
top 25-ranked Seminoles. She was ranked in the top seven in the
Atlantic Coast Conference in seven dif-ferent offensive categories
during league games. She tallied five game-winning hits and threw
out 11 attempted base steal-ers in route to a Super Regional
runner-up finish against Ari-zona State and a number 15 final
ranking in NCAA Division One.
After her sophomore year, Wood transferred to the Univer-sity of
Georgia, where she played for two seasons with the Bulldogs as a
catcher and first baseman. She led the team in RBIs in 2007 (46)
and home runs in 2008 (11). She was awarded the UGA Defensive
Player of the Year in 2008. That same year she earned her Bachelor
of Science in sociology from the in-stitution.
After graduation in 2008, she played professional softball in
Austria for the Dornbirn Sharx when that team won the Gold Medal in
the Austrian League and the Silver Medal at the European
Championships in Prague. She was named Most Valuable Player at the
European Cup after starting in all 10 games. The next year she
returned to defend the Gold Medal in Austria and take the Gold
Medal at the European Cup in Legnano, Italy.
Wood will build the GHC women’s softball team from the ground
up for a competitive start in Cartersville for the 2013-2014
academic year. She will also coordinate the institution’s
intramural sports.