University of Maryland

University of Maryland Dept of I/C Athletics
XFINITY Center 8500 Paint Branch Dr. College Park, MD 20741

Division 1 Maryland Northeast

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Mark Montgomery

Montgomery enters his fourth season at the helm of the Maryland softball program after a record setting 2022 season. The 2023 season will be his 23rd as a college head coach.

In 2022, Montgomery led the Terps to a 29-23 season, their most wins since the 2013 season. Maryland's 14 conference wins are the most since joining the Big Ten in 2015. The Terps also recorded a program high fifth-place finish since joining the conference. Montgomery also led the Terps to their first-ever Big Ten conference tournament victory over Michigan State in the opening round.

Montgomery recorded his 600th career win against North Dakota State, the team's first Big Ten series sweep since 2018. The offensive power continued for Maryland as five players hit over .300. The team finished second in the NCAA in stolen bases with 127 on the season.

In the 2021 season, a season in which the Terps only faced Big Ten opponents, Maryland finished with a 19-25 overall record, notching two victories over ranked opponents. Montgomery produced the first Big Ten Freshman of the Year in program history in Jaeda McFarland.

Montgomery's first season as head coach of Maryland was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Terps closed out the season with a 12-11 record in 2020. He is 60-59 overall in three seasons with the Terps.

Director of Athletics Damon Evans officially announced the hiring of Mark Montgomery as the fifth head coach in the history of the University of Maryland’s softball program on September 9, 2019.

Fresh off winning 2019 Conference USA Co-Coach of the Year honors after leading Louisiana Tech to conference regular season and tournament championships, Montgomery came to College Park with 19 years of experience as a head coach at the collegiate level.

From 2013-19, Montgomery spent the seven years as head coach at Louisiana Tech, guiding the program to two conference tournament championships (2017, 2019), two NCAA Regional appearances (2017, 2019) and five consecutive 30+ win seasons. Prior to his arrival at Tech, the program had recorded just one 30+ win season in the previous 23 years.

In his last regular season in Ruston, Montgomery led Louisiana Tech to 45 wins, the program’s first regular season conference title and a second C-USA Tournament title and NCAA Regional appearance in the last three years. The 45 victories were the second most in program history while Tech’s 19 C-USA wins were the most ever.

Montgomery owns a mark of 616-542 in 22 seasons as a head coach (19 at the Division I level), including a 226-161 record at Louisiana Tech.

Prior to Louisiana Tech, Montgomery served as the head coach at Georgetown (Ky.) from 2001-02, Centenary from 2003-10 and Northern Colorado from 2011-12.

The Kentucky native has led his teams to 15 winning seasons during his 22 years, including 12 seasons of 30 or more wins and 15 with 25 or more victories.

While at Centenary, he led the program to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances in 2004 and 2005, and won more than 200 games, including upset victories over Florida, Auburn, Arkansas, Minnesota, Syracuse, Boston College and New Mexico.

Montgomery led Centenary to the program’s first winning season in 13 years in 2004 and a program record-tying 36 victories as Centenary captured the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament championship and advanced to the school’s first ever NCAA Tournament. The following season saw Montgomery and the Ladies win 31 games, capture their second straight Mid-Continent Tournament title and return to the NCAA Tournament.

Following Centenary’s decision to drop down to Division III, Montgomery coached the Ladies in 2009 and then accepted the head coaching position at Northern Colorado where he led the program to back-to-back second place finishes in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference Mountain Division (2nd place) each season while being named the PCSC Mountain Division Coach of the Year in 2011. The 2012 team won a school record 25 games and broke 21 school records.

Montgomery’s teams have always been highly successful away from the softball diamond as each one of them has registered a team grade point average above 3.0 for the past 15 years. His 2001 team at Georgetown College posted a cumulative GPA that ranked in the top 10 of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Academic Teams. His Northern Colorado team in 2012 finished ranked No. 2 in the country in team GPA.

Prior to his collegiate coaching experience, Montgomery served as the softball coach at Lafayette (Ky.) High School where he won seven district titles, five regional titles and one state championship title while posting a 170-73 record.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Eastern Kentucky in 1992 and his master’s degree from Georgetown College in 2000.

Montgomery and his wife Melanie have three daughters: Bailey, Emma and Adrienne.

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Chelsea Butler

Chelsea Butler joined the Maryland softball staff on Oct. 7, from Incarnate Word where she lead the pitching staff and assisted in recruiting, as well as team workouts.

Butler comes in with over a decade of experience, both as a collegiate student-athlete and pitching coach, at the Division I level. She spent four years as the associate head coach at Presbyterian College (2014-2018). She was in charge of the pitching staff and designing off-season and in-season workouts,while also serving as the recruiting coordinator. She coached three All-Big South pitchers, 18 NFCA Scholar Athletes, and helped the Blue Hose earn 2015 Big South runner-up honors.

Prior to her time at Presbyterian, Butler spent one season at Temple. While with the Owls, she oversaw the pitching staff and designing off-season and in-season workouts. Additionally, she coordinated several in-game aspects, including pitch calling and charting. Butler also served as the recruiting coordinator and, as the first assistant, handled travel logistics and other duties.

Butler joined Temple after spending the 2013 season at Utah State, where she worked primarily with the pitchers. While with the Aggies, she was also responsible for scouting reports and served as the recruiting coordinator.

Before Utah State, Butler was an assistant coach at her alma mater, Eastern Kentucky, during 2012. While there, she was responsible for the pitchers and recruiting.

As a player, Butler was a two-year pitcher (2008-09) for Eastern Kentucky. Her career was highlighted by a standout senior season in which she posted a 2.32 ERA. Prior to arriving at EKU, Butler played two seasons at Golden West Junior College. As a sophomore there, she posted a 21-13 record with a 1.35 ERA and 170 strikeouts in 231.2 innings of work. She earned first team all-conference recognition and was an all-tournament selection.

Prior to her return to EKU as a coach, Butler served as an assistant coach with the USA Athletics 18 gold team in Southern California. She has also been a private pitching instructor since 2009, coaching girls ages 7-18 in their pitching skills, development and proper mechanics.

Butler graduated from Concordia University-Irvine in May 2017 with a Masters of Arts in Coaching and Athletic Administration. She also earned a degree in sociology from Eastern Kentucky (2009).

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Emerald Doria

Doria reunites with Montgomery for the 2021-22 season after serving as associate head coach at Louisiana Tech beginning in 2014. Doria played for Montgomery in addition during her collegiate days at Centenary College in Shreveport, and was also instrumental in helping Louisiana Tech record five straight 30-plus win seasons – a feat that hasn't been accomplished by the program since the 1990s – and three conference titles (2019 regular season, 2017 & 2019 tournament) over the last three seasons.

The San Antonio, TX native joins the Terrapins from Southwestern University, where she has served as head coach since July of 2019. "I am looking forward to being in the Big Ten coaching alongside Coach Montgomery once more," Doria said. "I'm ready to get to work and am excited to be part of the Maryland community!"

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Laura Heberling

Head coach Mark Montgomery has announced the addition of Laura Heberling as the Terrapin's newest assistant coach.

"Laura is first and foremost an amazing human being," Montgomery said. "She is so caring and passionate about making players better people. She is an outstanding pitching coach and wants to work with each of our pitchers as individuals, helping them maximize their own unique abilities. She is known as a great recruiter and is an excellent judge of talent that can be developed."

Heberling comes to Maryland having served as the associate head coach at Utah State for the past two years, spending four on staff primarily working with the pitchers. As a team in 2022, the Aggies' pitching staff posted a 4.38 ERA, with senior Kapri Toone leading the way with a 2.89 ERA and 14 victories with two shutouts. Toone was earned Second Team All-Mountain West Honors, and the Aggies finished with its second highest conference record in program history.

Prior to Utah State, Heberling spent five seasons as the head coach of USC Beaufort after spending two seasons as an assistant coach, bringing the Sand Sharks to a 177-92 record including 55-38 in conference play.

During her tenure, Heberling coached 27 all-Sun Conference performers, two NAIA All-Americans, 14 Sun Conference All-Academic performers, eight CoSIDA Academic All-District players and one CoSIDA Academic All-American. Heberling was named the Sun Conference Coach of the Year in 2015 after posting 42-14 record en route to a Sun Conference Tournament title and an NAIA Opening Round appearance.

"I am excited for the opportunity to coach at Maryland and take the next step in my coaching career," Heberling said. "I am looking forward to working with a great coaching staff, and the Maryland Softball Team. I want to thank Coach Montgomery, the coaching staff and search committee for this great opportunity. I can't wait to get to Maryland and meet the team and get to work. Go Terps!"

A Ft. Lauderdale, Florida native, Heberling graduated from UNC Pembroke with a bachelor's degree in Exercise Science, and a master's in Athletics/Activities Administration from William Woods. She and her husband Ed have two sons, Hollis and Hayes.