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Chris
Cannata, a three-time America East Conference Coach of the Year honoree,
enters her 12th season as the winningest head coach in the history of the
UAlbany softball program. During her tenure at UAlbany, the Great Danes
have compiled a .659 winning percentage and have averaged nearly 28 wins
per season. The Great Danes collected their 500th victory on April 14,
2005 against Manhattan and have 516 wins in the program's 39-year history.
Last
season, Cannata's squad set a single-season record with 35 victories, plus
advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the program's
history. The Great Danes were crowned the America East Conference
Tournament champions and posted their second straight regular-season
conference title, while leading the conference with a .306 batting
average. Eight Great Danes received all-conference honors, including
Rookie of the Year Amber Maisonet and Pitcher of the Year Amanda Morin.
Morin and Kelly Ogden were each named to the NFCA All-Northeast Region
Team.
In
2004, Cannata's squad posted its second consecutive 34-win season. The
Great Danes won their first regular-season conference championship at the
Division I level with a 17-2 record. The Great Danes led the America East
in hitting. Four players were named to the all-conference first team,
while two were selected to the second team. Pitcher Andee Lindgren was
honored as the 2004 America East Player of the Year after being named the
conference's pitcher of the year in 2003. Lindgren was also a two-time
selection to the NFCA's Northeast Region Team.
Cannata
guided the Great Danes to their first appearance in the America East
Conference championship game in 2003. The previous year was UAlbany's
debut season in the America East, and Cannata led her squad to a 12-12
league mark, while finishing 30-20 overall. Cannata saw both Megan Craft
and Valerie Terry earn second-team all-conference honors that year.
In
UAlbany's four seasons in the conference, Cannata has coached 13 players
to the first team, six to the second team and six to the all-rookie team,
including 2003 America East Rookie of the Year Maegan Larsen. The team has
won 30 or more games and appeared in the conference tournament in each
season of league play. UAlbany has an overall record of 133-62 during that
span, a .682 winning clip.
Cannata
led the Great Danes through their transition from the Division III level
to the Division II level in 1996 and the upgrade to Division I in 2000.
UAlbany finished with a 27-9 record in its inaugural Division I campaign,
concluding with an ECAC regional tournament appearance.
In
1999, UAlbany totaled a then school-record 33 victories on its way to the
Division II ECAC Mid-Atlantic Championship and a second-place finish in
the New England Collegiate Conference. Cannata was named the NECC Coach of
the Year when UAlbany won its first-ever conference championship in 1998.
The team finished with a 32-9 record, and was awarded an ECAC Tournament
bid. During the Great Danes four-year stay in Division II, she guided her
team to a 101-55 record for a .647 winning percentage and three trips to
the ECAC playoffs.
Prior
to her appointment at UAlbany, Cannata was the head coach at Voorheesville
High School, where her team captured the 1994 Colonial Conference and New
York State Section II titles. She was also a member of the Adirondack Ice,
an area major fastpitch team, and played for 10 years on the Adirondack
Region Empire State Games squad.
A native of Port Jefferson, N.Y., Cannata received a bachelor's degree in business administration with a concentration in finance from UAlbany in 1985. She was a member of the school's women's basketball and softball teams.
This
is Jack Coons’ 25th year working with the UAlbany softball program.
Since his arrival at UAlbany in 1982, Coons has been an integral part of
the Great Danes’ success while managing the pitching staff. During that
period, UAlbany has compiled over 450 wins and has reached post-season
play 19 times. Under Coons’ guidance, the Great Danes pitching staff has
recorded three no-hitters, the nation’s lowest Division III ERA (0.34),
and the Division III record for the most strikeouts per seven innings
(12.41). Both marks were established in 1995. UAlbany also won the NYSWCAA
tournament three times and the ECAC Division II tournament in 1999.
Last
season, Coons saw his second hurler in three years named the America East
Pitcher of the Year in Amanda Morin. Morin posted a 1.06 ERA with eight
shutouts and a 16-3 record on the season. Casey Halloran joined her in
winning 16 games, and the two anchored the staff that was second in the
conference with a 2.23 ERA, just one-hundredth of a point behind the
leader, Stony Brook. The pitching staff combined for a league-best 276
strikeouts or 5.87 per game.
Coons’
2004 staff had two pitchers reach double figures in wins (Andee Lindgren
and Halloran) and had a conference-leading ERA of 1.78. Lindgren, the 2004
conference player of the year, combined for 38 victories, 350 strikeouts,
40 complete games and 13 shutouts in two seasons. He also guided Halloran
to a 10-game winning streak and an 11-3 overall record.
In
2003, the staff ranked 21st in the nation with a 1.43 ERA, which led the
America East. UAlbany also ranked first in the conference in five other
categories: wins (34), runs allowed (90), earned runs (61), saves (6) and
opposing batting average (.202). During the 2002 season, UAlbany was
second in fewest earned runs and shutouts, third in ERA and fewest hits,
and fourth in strikeouts.
Coons and his wife, Barbara, reside in Schenectady, N.Y. and have a son, Brian, 37, and a daughter Jennifer, 34. They have one grandson, Leo (3) and a new granddaughter, Maya. |
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