It was announced in early November that the head coach of Cabrini’s softball team, Mitchell Kline, would not be coaching for the spring 2016 season due to sick leave. Instead, Cabrini alumna Sammy Thompson took on the role as interim head coach, amidst her various other jobs around Cabrini College.
“Back in October Mitch sat us [Cabrini’s softball team] all down in a meet
ing and he broke the news to us and told us that he won’t be able to coach this year,” sophomore outfielder Victoria Hall said. “He’s still a part of our team.”
While the players are adjusting to the change in coach, many were relieved to hear that Thompson would be taking over.
“She was our assistant coach my freshman year,” junior right fielder Amber Dietrich said. “She stepped back sophomore year and she returned this year, so all of the juniors and seniors knew who she was.”
Besides previously being assistant coach for the softball team, Thompson has been actively involved in Cabrini’s athletics program since her freshman year. She was a highly recognized dual-sport student athlete, playing both soccer and softball in her college career.
Among many other honors, she was recognized as the Most Outstanding Senior Athlete upon graduation, while also working in the athletics department.
“I started working here while I was a student,” Thompson said. “If that counts I’ve been working here for eight years.”
Going straight from being a student-athlete to an assistant coach is not a task that every young graduate would be able to handle, but Thompson quickly took the leadership roles for both of her previous sports.
“I went from being friends with them to now I have to be like a leader figure in their life, which was weird,” Thompson said. “But at the same time I was captain for both teams, so going into my junior and senior year they kind of looked at me, I’m assuming, in that leadership role; so stepping into that assistant coaching role wasn’t too much of a difference.”
Currently, Thompson is the interim head softball coach, assistant women’s soccer coach, building supervisor for the Dixon Center and in her spare time coaches soccer in the Radnor area.
“I wanted to focus a little more on soccer. That was more of my passion, so I focused a lot on different soccer jobs in the area. That’s when I stopped [assistant coaching softball],” Thompson said. When Mitch got sick I was asked to take over as head coach because I had already coached with Hillary, the other assistant, so it was a good mix.”
Though new to head coaching, Thompson feels she is able to lead the team well based on her experience with the team previously. “It’s just a lot more behind the scenes stuff, it’s not 100 percent different,” Thompson said.
“I think since Sammy is younger she kind of understands how our minds work a little better, so it’s been a good change,” Dietrich said. “She’s a lot of fun to be around so she makes sure that we always have fun when we’re out there and always laughing.”
“Sammy’s great, I think she’s a great coach,” Hall said. “She has done a lot to improve the team and make us better.”
