Aug 24 – Hard pressed to find a successor with a resume similar to that of former softball head coach Mary Jo Firnbach, the only head coach in Syracuse history, SU athletics director Daryl Gross spent nearly two months scouring the coaching ranks.

Thursday night, Gross appointed not one, but two coaches to bolster the SU softball staff.

Leigh Ross, the winningest coach in Bowling Green State history, was named head coach of the Orange. Ross will also bring her top assistant of three years, Kyle Jamison, to Syracuse as an associate head coach.

‘I am so excited that we were able to secure one of the top collegiate softball coaching tandems in the country for our program,’ Gross said in a press release.

‘This will help Syracuse softball compete for a national championship. The magnitude of their coming to Syracuse can’t be put into words.’

Ross led BGSU to the NCAA tournament in 2004, a berth which has eluded the SU squad in its first seven years of competition.

Last season, the Orange set a school record with 36 wins, but was eliminated in the first round of the Big East tournament by DePaul. Firnbach left the program on June 27 to take an assistant coaching job at Texas A&M.

In her eight seasons as head coach of the Falcons, Ross compiled a 237-198-2 record. She was named Mid-American Conference coach of the year in 2001.

In 2004, BGSU won the school’s first Mid-American Conference tournament. Last season, the Falcons tied a school record for wins – 37 – and finished 16-6 in the MAC.

‘I never thought I would find a better place than Bowling Green, but I did in Syracuse,’ Ross said in a press release. ‘I was not looking to leave Bowling Green, but after talking with the people at Syracuse, I was so impressed with the vision.’

Ross was a four-year starter at the University of Toledo and played on the 1989 team, which finished seventh at the College World Series. She participated in the 1994 USA Softball Olympic Team Trials and was named an alternate to the team.

Published on August 23, 2006 at 12:00 pm