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Elaine Schwager
Elaine Schwager continues in the tenth year of her second stint of the head coach at Merrimack during the 2023-24 academic year. Over 15 seasons with Merrimack, Schwager holds a 299-334 (.473) with a career record of 424-447 (.487).
In the 2023 season, Schwager helped lead the team to the first NEC tournament in school history. As well helped lead the team to the first championship in schools history where they were runner ups to LIU. ending the season with an overall record of 18-30(.375) and a conference record of 11-10(.524).
During the fall of 2022, Schwager and her 2005 Suffolk University softball team were named to the school's Hall of Fame. During that 2005 season, Schwager was named as the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Coach of the Year.
Schwager recorded her 400th career win against LIU on April 10, 2022 with a 3-0 victory over the Sharks. The benchmark comes as she is already one of ten coaches NCAA softball coaches with wins at Division I, II and III in the NCAA.
In the 2022 season, three student-athletes were named to the All-Rookie team, as catcher Nicole Basil, infielder Sofia Palyan and outfielder Ellen Hubbard were recognized by the league. Basil had a .964 fielding percentage, seven batter caught stealing and 97 putouts. At the plate, Basil had nine hits including two RBI including a double that brought in a run against Sacred Heart. Hubbard led the team across batting categories this season with a .362 batting average, a .896 OPS, 46 hits including seven doubles and two home runs and 59 total bases. Hubbard brought in 22 RBI and went 3-for-3 on stolen base attempts as she started in 41 contests this year. Palyan had 14 hits and 7 RBI including two monumental home runs against Sacred Heart and Bryant. Defensively, the third baseman worked a .943 fielding percentage with 25 putouts and 25 assists. The trio were the first All-Conference honorees for the softball team since moving to Division I.
The 2022 team worked 14 wins on the season, with 10 coming in conference play. Two wins came in extra innings, with a 7-4 victory over Niagara coming in nine frames, while an 11-9 win at Bryant took eight innings. The Warriors closed off their home slate with a three-game sweep of Sacred Heart, with doubleheaders won on home runs by Jenna Wike, Courtney Lanpher and Sofia Palyan.
Players continued their success off the field, with senior first baseman Jenna Wike named the Northeast Conference Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year for holding a 4.0 GPA as an exercise science and bioethics student while putting up career numbers, including 10 doubles and three home runs.
Heading into the 2022 season, the team made waves off the field. Incoming first year player Sydney Emerson was named the MaxPreps Best High School Softball Player for the state of New Hampshire. Infielder Sydney Shimkus also represented on an international stage, as she competed for Puerto Rico in the first-ever Junior PanAm Games in the Fall of 2021.
During a truncated 2021 season, the Warriors were able to gain momentum in the early stretches of the season on home turf, taking four of six across a trio of doubleheaders. Merrimack swept the University of Maine, before taking the program's first Northeast Conference win against Wagner, taking a 3-0 victory. The program also succeeded academically, with 27 student-athletes named to the NEC Spring Academic Honor Roll for holding a 3.20 GPA or better, with an additional 12 student-athletes recognized on the NEC Commissioner's Honor Roll with a 3.75 or higher GPA. As a whole, the team finished the 2020-21 academic year with a 3.604 GPA as a group.
In the team's abbreviated 2020 season, Schwager guided Merrimack into its first season as a Division I program. The Warriors played 14 total games that spring, picking up the team's first-ever Division I victories over St. Bonaventure and Quinnipiac. Those victories made Schwager one of ten softball coaches all-time with wins at all three Divisional levels of the NCAA after previously coaching at Regis and Suffolk (D-III) as well as Merrimack at Division II.
A rebuilding effort inside the circle in 2019, Schwager called upon an underclassmen pitching staff to lead the program to a 25-23 overall record. With its final berth at an Northeast-10 Conference playoff run on the line, the Warriors won eight of its final eleven regular season contests, and made it to the NE10 Quarterfinal round.
Despite graduating a six-player senior class that included five starters and multiple all-conference players, Schwager retooled her program to guide the Warriors back to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year and 15th time in program history in 2018. Returning to the national rankings for the first time since the 2012 campaign, Merrimack won 33 total games to post the first consecutive 30-win seasons since the 2001 and 2002 programs each won 40 and 35 times, respectively. The program won two games in the NCAA East Regional, and nearly went on to upset eventual national runner-up Saint Anselm in the regional final.
Individually, Schwager saw her two senior captains, Megan Cook and Alyssa Williamson, become All-Americans. The former earned athletic All-American honors from three different outlets (Division II Conference Commissioners Association, National Fastpitch Coaches Association & Fastpitch News), while the latter was both an athletic All-American (D2CCA) and a Google Cloud First Team Academic All-American. Williamson was also named the NE10 Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year; Schwager's softball team boasted four all-conference selections and a pair of academic all-league honorees.
In terms of total victories, Schwager enjoyed the most successful season of her second stint with the program in 2017. The Warriors reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years and the 14th time in school history. Merrimack reached the subregional final as the sixth seed in the East Region, upsetting nationally ranked and third-seeded Caldwell University during NCAA play. Schwager was selected as NE10 Coach of the Year after leading Merrimack to its first-ever divisional crown. The program totaled 35 wins, the most in a single season in 13 years. Schwager also notched her 300th career win against Pace, the 2016 NE10 Champions, during a 9-0 victory on March 15, 2017.
In addition to her Coach of the Year award, Schwager guided eight Warriors to all-conference selections. Seniors Haley Currie and Sammy Waskowitz, along with juniors Alyssa Williamson and Megan Cook, received all-region recognition as well. Williamson stood out in the classroom as well, becoming the program's first Academic All-American in 22 years.
In 2016, Schwager would guide the Warriors to a return to the Northeast-10 Conference Championship, clinching a berth by posting three wins on the final day of the season. After a tough stretch against some very stiff competition to end March, the Warriors would go 9-1 over there next 10 games and post an 18-7 record in April to advance to the conference tournament.
Merrimack finished 2016 with a 24-26 record, including 14-13 in NE-10 play, while Schwager saw Haley Currie selected to the NE-10 All-Conference and NFCA All-East Region First Teams. Schwager also helped a pair of freshman make the NE-10 All-Rookie Team.
The former Warrior head coach returned to campus for a second stint in 2015 and guided a young squad to the cusp of a playoff berth. Merrimack finished with seven wins in its last 11 games and posted its first win over a ranked opponent (#18 Southern N.H.) since the 2011 campaign, which was coincidentally Schwager's final year during her first tenure at Merrimack. The Warriors missed out on a playoff berth in the 2015 NE-10 Championship by a single game in the highly competitive Northeast Division.
Overall, Merrimack finished 19-24 in 2015, while Schwager helped two student-athletes earn all-conference recognition.
Schwager enjoyed a successful six-year run with the program from 2006-11 and was named the 2009 Northeast-10 Conference Coach of the Year after guiding her squad to a 17-win improvement and a 26-19 overall record.
In 2011, Merrimack enjoyed its best season in eight years, finishing 31-23 overall while reaching the Northeast-10 Championship and the NCAA Super Regionals after capturing the NCAA East Region 1 Championship.
Schwager also guided Merrimack to an appearance in the NE-10 Championship Final in 2007 and helped the team reach the double-elimination championship weekend round in 2009.
Prior to Merrimack, Schwager was the head softball coach at Suffolk University for six seasons while also serving as the Associate Athletic Director and head volleyball coach. She led the softball team to two ECAC New England postseason tournaments while coaching one of the most prolific base stealers in NCAA history as well as the program's most decorated pitcher. She was also twice named the GNAC Coach of the Year in both 2003 and 2005.
Schwager graduated from Boston Unviersity where she was a member of the softball team. She landed her first softball coaching stint in her first postgraduate year, joining the UMass Lowell coaching staff as an assistant. After two years in Lowell, Schwager returned to BU to join its staff as a graduate assistant, where she remained for a season.
Following her year at BU, Schwager landed her first head coaching gig at Regis College, where she posted 25 wins across two seasons. While at Regis, Schwager also served as the head coach for the Croation National Team for two years before joining Suffolk.
A Salem, New Hampshire native, Schwager was inducted into the Salem High School Hall of Fame in 2001. She currently resides in North Andover with her wife, Heather, her daughter Peyton and son, Blake.
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