LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Carol Bruggeman has signed a five-year contract to continue as the NFCA Executive Director, the Board of Directors announced today.
Bruggeman, who has served as Executive Director since Feb. 1, 2016, following four months in an interim role, has presided over the two highest-attended National Conventions in the NFCA’s 35-year history. In three years under her leadership, the NFCA has shown significant growth in all areas.
Membership has grown over 32 percent and sponsorship revenue has increased nearly 68 percent since she took charge in September 2015. In April 2017, she spearheaded the Association’s acquisition of the seven National Softball Coaches Clinics founded by NFCA Hall of Famer Mary Nutter and Traci Mayberry that had been a staple of softball instruction for 30 years — to accompany the NFCA’s own highly-successful Louisville clinic, which Bruggeman started in 2016. Last December’s National Convention at Bally’s Las Vegas had a record 1,687 attendees.
Board Past-President Rhonda Revelle, the head coach at the University of Nebraska, echoed those comments.
Some other initiatives introduced during Bruggeman’s tenure are a legal services benefit for members, a weekly educational podcast, a weekly tip/drill video, a year-round coach mentoring program, an online softball scoring seminar, a job posting service, an expanded coach and student-athlete awards program, plus a pilot member program that alone has added 1,875 new members. The NFCA also campaigned on behalf of its coaches to eliminate early recruiting practices in Division I college softball, which the NCAA adopted this past spring, and the Association did the first major revamp of its bylaws since they were initially adopted in 1983.
Bruggeman also took steps to protect the Association’s brand, by trademarking the NFCA name and logo, as well as the NFCC abbreviation for its series of National Fastpitch Coaches College classes.
Significant improvements have also been made to the NFCA’s Louisville headquarters the past three years, ranging from upgraded technology, to new carpeting, furniture and windows, to new graphics throughout the building. Bruggeman has grown the Association staff to nine full-time team members, plus two part-timers and two interns.
“Special thanks to our coaches, sponsors, and talented NFCA team. Together we have accomplished a great deal in the last three years, and we look forward to continued growth and service to the softball community. It truly is an exciting time to be involved in the sport of softball."
Bruggeman is certainly no stranger to the Association, having been an active member for 25 years while unselfishly serving the NFCA in numerous capacities. She had a four-year term as Board President and stints as both the Past-President and Fourth Vice President, in addition to time spent as Division I Representative.
She joined the NFCA full-time as Associate Executive Director in September 2014, after a long career as an NCAA Division I coach at Michigan, Purdue and Louisville, and is a well-respected national speaker, clinician, educator, television analyst and author. Bruggeman continues to speak and teach, and remains a fixture on the ESPN and Big Ten (BTN) television networks during the college softball season.
During her coaching career, Bruggeman has been a part of over 700 victories, and has had a hand in many conference titles and coached numerous NFCA All-Americans. In July 2011, she traveled to Australia as head coach of the college team that won a gold medal with USA-Athletes International, and traveled to the Czech Republic in 2009 in the same role.
As an infielder at the University of Iowa, Bruggeman was an All-Big Ten and All-Mideast Region selection, as well as an Academic All-American and a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree, who received Iowa’s Athletic Academic Medal of Honor. In 1997, she was inducted into the Iowa Softball Association Hall of Fame.