Babson Park, FL – Webber International Athletics and Brad Niethammer are proud to announce the hiring of Hawley Ill as the Head Coach of Webber International Softball. Ill brings over 10 years of college coaching experience to Webber and aims to make an immediate impact on the Softball program.
Ill joins the Warriors after a head coaching stint at Division 1 JUCO East Georgia State College, where she led the Lady Bobcats for two years. Ill coached two All-Region players, two All-Conference players, seven All-Academic players, in addition to a player receiving an Honor Achievement Award. She led the team to a third place finish in the JUCO regional tournament her first year at the helm.
She started her coaching career fresh out of college as a head coach at NJCAA Wake Technical College in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she led the team to their first-ever conference win, coached three all-conference players, and bolstered the roster size from 9 to 18 players. After Wake Tech, she became the assistant coach at the College of Central Florida in Ocala, Florida, where the team won the Mid-Florida Conference title for the fourth time in six years. The school also won the first FCSAA State (Region 8) Championship in school history, taking down NJCAA No. 3 Chipola and NJCAA No. 1 Florida Southwestern in their final two games. The 2019 team had an amazing year offensively. The Lady Patriots were near the top of every offensive category in the Nation and led the state in homeruns for six years (101- Top 5 in NJCAA). The Lady Patriots also led the State in RBI (519- 2nd NJCAA), hits (703- 3rd NJCAA), and slugging percentage (.626- Top 10 NJCAA), while finishing No. 2 in the state in batting average (.377- Top 15 NJCAA). Coach Ill helped produce the Mid-Florida Conference Pitcher of the Year.
Ill also spent time as an assistant softball coach and pitching coach at NCAA D2 Ursuline College (Pepper Pike, OH), and NAIA Montreat College (Black Mountain, NC). After Montreat, Ill spent the one season as the head softball coach at Johnson University in Kissimmee, Florida, where she worked on building their first-ever softball program in school history.
As a collegiate athlete, Coach Ill earned a variety of accolades throughout the course of her softball career. She attended Chipola College in 2011, then moved to the College of Central Florida where she claimed an accumulation of honors. As a member of the Patriots, she started at all nine positions and notched All-Conference Defense her freshman year before leading the team in runs scored and on-base percentage her sophomore season, earning All-Conference Offense. She continued her career at the University of Pikeville in 2013-14 where she achieved All-Conference Offense Honors once more, while leading the Bears in every offensive statistical category.
Coach Ill then transferred to St. Andrews University as a senior, was an All-Conference Pitcher, collected the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Pitcher of the Week award, and finished the season as the AAC's strikeout leader.
Niethammer is confident in Ill's ability to lead the Warrior Softball program.
"Hawley brings experience and knowledge from several different collegiate levels and We are looking forward to her getting our softball program back to a SUN Conference contender."
Ill will be a welcome addition to the Warrior Softball program and is ready to hit the ground running.
"I am excited and thankful to the Athletic Administration for the opportunity to lead the Warrior Softball program and can't wait to get to work with this special group of ladies!"
Coach Ill is already hot on the recruiting trail and any interested athletes can reach out to her at illha@webber.edu.
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