JMU Gains a Football Coach, But Loses a Softball Star
JMU made a couple of big announcements on Wednesday. One of them has fans very excited, and the other one has fans in a bit of a panic.
First the good news. Head Coach Mike Houston hired Steve Shankweiler to be the new Offensive Line Coach. Shank (can we call him Shank?) will replace Bryan Stinespring who left to join the Maryland Terrapins staff. Like Stinespring did, he brings a wealth of experience to the ‘burg. He’s been in coaching for over 40 years, with over half as an offensive coordinator. He most recently served as a defensive analysts for NC State, but he’s really known for coaching offensive and building some rather impressive offensive lines at places such as ECU, Cincinnati, and Georgia Tech. He’s a terrific hire to fill the big vacancy that Stinespring’s departure created.
And now the bad news. Megan Good is out for the entire 2018 softball season. The school announced that she suffered some sort of knee injury. Not a lot of details were provided, but she did say that she’ll be back to play next season. Presumably that means that she’ll take a redshirt year this season.
Good of course was the Dukes best pitcher, and arguably the best pitcher in the entire NCAA. Given how reliant college softball teams are on their aces, this is bad news for the Dukes. There’s no real sugarcoating it. However, maybe we can grasp for a bit of a silver lining. The Dukes are in the market for a full time head coach after Mickey Deane left for Auburn. The prospect of coaching Megan Good next year only makes the job more attractive. But for now, it’s a real dagger for interim coach Loren LaPorte and the rest of the JMU softball program.
An absolute homerun with the hire for OL coach by Houston. Should gel right in and in sync with what Kirkpatrick and Houston want to do on offense.
No for softball….the injury to Good is a bummer but I think Alexander will be more than capable along with some new-commers to fill the void. Not saying that will replace Good but I think JMU will be ‘ok’.
Now for my black-helicopter theory…..Even though she is saying the right things I give it 50/50 at best Good ever steps inside the circle again for JMU. She can red-shirt this year, graduate in the spring, and transfer as a grad-transfer and not sit-out to Auburn as their ace pitcher/1B for a top tier program in the SEC and make a serious run at Oklahoma City with her old Coach. Hope I am wrong here, but this seems very coincidental and lines up very well. Gives Dean a year to reshape (not that is should need much) the team in Auburn to buy-into his ideas and boom bring in a ‘mercenary’ for a shot at the title. Knowing you are in the SEC, most likely will get to play regional and super-regional at home.
DEFINITELY a concern Shady. On the flip side, if she does stay, another year for CC And the kids to grow up could make for another great Dukes team.