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George Washington University

George Washington Dept of Ath & Rec
 Charles E. Smith Center - 600 22nd St NW Washington, DC 20052
Division 1 Dist of Columbia Northeast
Private Large National competitor
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Coaches

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Chrissy Schoonmaker

Chrissy Schoonmaker was hired as head coach of GW softball on July 8, 2021.


In her first season leading the program, Schoonmaker was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year after guiding the Buff and Blue to their second straight conference regular season title.


Led by All-American Sierra Lange and A-10 Player of the Year Alexa Williams, GW went 36-17, including a 21-3 mark in conference play, and advanced to the A-10 Championship final before concluding its season at the National Invitational Softball Championship in Fort Collins, Colo. After a 6-10 start, the group surged down the stretch by winning 27 of 30 to finish the regular season, highlighted by a 13-game winning streak that tied a program record.


The Buff and Blue finished the regular season ranked among the top 100 nationally in RPI and ended up among the national leaders in a number of statistical categories. They were recognized for a memorable spring with Lange and Williams pacing a program-record five All-Conference First Team selections.


A veteran leader with more than a decade of experience at the highest levels of the sport, Schoonmaker arrived at GW after a stint as an assistant coach at Harvard following stops at Connecticut, Houston, Texas Tech and her alma mater South Carolina.


Schoonmaker spent the 2020-21 academic year on staff at Harvard, during which she helped lead the Crimson's virtual programming amid the COVID-19 pandemic with an emphasis on team building and leadership development through core value study. The Sebastian, Fla., native also contributed to the SEC Network's softball coverage as a game analyst this spring for the second consecutive season.


Before heading to the Ivy League, Schoonmaker spent a year as assistant director of development at South Carolina where she was part of major-gift fundraising efforts for the athletic department, including creating an initiative – The Women of South Carolina – that has raised more than $1 million to date to provide resources for female student-athletes at her alma mater.


Schoonmaker’s latest tenure at USC followed five seasons as lead assistant at UConn. Her wide-ranging responsibilities included practice planning, scouting and recruiting for the Huskies, who recorded 95 wins from 2015-19 competing in the American Athletic Conference. In her final campaign, the program produced five All-AAC performers, including a pair of first-team picks, as well as 14 AAC All-Academic Team honorees.


In 2014, Schoonmaker was on staff for Houston’s run to the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars totaled 33 victories and earned an at-large berth in the Waco Regional. She served as infield coach for a group that set a single-season program record for double plays turned and helped increase the team fielding percentage by 12 points from the previous spring.


Schoonmaker began her collegiate coaching career with three seasons working at the Power Five level. She served as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Texas Tech during the 2013 season, helping the Red Raiders record 30 victories, after two years as a volunteer assistant at her alma mater.


Following the end of her playing career, Schoonmaker also spent two seasons in the high school coaching ranks at Dreher High School in Columbia, S.C., rising to become co-head coach during the spring of 2010.


At South Carolina, Schoonmaker was a four-year captain, member of two NCAA squads and versatile contributor who logged time at nearly every position on the diamond over her five seasons with the Gamecocks.


She was named to the SEC All-Defensive Team as a graduate student in 2008 and also received the athletic department’s Gamecock Inspiration Award that year in recognition of her determined comeback after sustaining a broken neck in a car accident that kept her out of the 2007 season.


A five-time SEC All-Academic Honor Roll selection, Schoonmaker earned her undergraduate degree from South Carolina majoring in Psychology in 2007 before adding a master’s in Mass Communication and Journalism in 2009.


At Florida’s Sebastian River High School, she was a two-time All-State softball performer, also lettering in basketball, soccer, volleyball and track.

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Teresa Fister

Teresa Fister joined George Washington softball as an assistant coach in August 2021 ahead of its inaugural season under head coach Chrissy Schoonmaker.


In Fister's first season with the program, the Buff and Blue claimed their second straight conference regular season title and advanced to the A-10 Championship final before concluding the spring at the National Invitational Softball Championship in Fort Collins, Colo.


Led by All-American Sierra Lange and A-10 Player of the Year Alexa Williams, GW went 36-17, including a 21-3 mark in conference play. After a 6-10 start, the group surged down the stretch by winning 27 of 30 to finish the regular season, highlighted by a 13-game winning streak that tied a program record.


The Buff and Blue finished the regular season ranked among the top 100 nationally in RPI and ended up among the national leaders in a number of statistical categories. They were recognized for a memorable spring with Lange and Williams pacing a program-record five All-Conference First Team selections.


A former collegiate pitcher and noted pitching instructor, Fister has spent the past five seasons leading the program at Division III Greensboro College, totaling 95 wins and a .579 winning percentage with the Pride, including a 24-9 mark in 2021.


In 2021, Fister guided Greensboro College to its third straight winning season and its most successful campaign by winning percentage since 2007. Paced by three All-Conference performers, the Pride recorded the second-lowest ERA (2.31) and most strikeouts (188 K in 33 games) in the USA South Athletic Conference while also posting a league-best .314 batting average and averaging 5.5 runs per game. Her group also excelled academically with a combined 3.59 GPA in 2020-21, highlighted by 17 NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete honorees.


In all, Greensboro College produced four winning seasons and 13 All-Conference honorees during Fister's five-year tenure. That run included a strong 2019 season in which the program won 25 games while landing in the top 35 nationally in fielding percentage (.969), stolen bases (2.0 per game) and shutouts (10).


Before taking over the Pride, Fister spent the 2016 campaign as an assistant coach at UNC-Greensboro, aiding a squad that won 33 games and finished in the top three in the Southern Conference in ERA and strikeouts.


Fister was previously head coach at her alma mater Northwest Guilford High School, winning four Piedmont Triad 4A titles in as many seasons from 2012-2015 and three times being named the conference's Coach of the Year. She also was a successful head coach with Lady Lightning Gold on the club circuit, helping develop more than 20 D-I recruits.


As a student-athlete at Appalachian State, Fister appeared in 80 games in the circle over four seasons from 2006-09, finishing as the program's all-time leader in saves. She received Appalachian State's Rick Edmundson Athletic Award, in addition to being named an NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete and recognized on the national Who's Who Among Students list and the Southern Conference Honor Roll.


A native of Summerfield, N.C., Fister earned a double degree in Health Education & Physical Education from Appalachian State before securing a master's in Sports Management from West Virginia.

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