Softball Release - Cook Hired - Guilford College

Greensboro, NC (06/02/03) -- Guilford College Athletic Director Marion Kirby announced the appointment of Ty Cook as the school's head softball coach Monday. Cook takes over for J.J. Edwards and Barb Bausch, who shared coaching duties on an interim basis in 2003.

"I think we got a good fit," Kirby said. "She was our first choice and she brings a refreshing outlook to the department. We look forward to her getting started here."

Cook comes to Guilford after five seasons as head softball coach at Bluffton College, an NCAA Division III school in northwestern Ohio. She guided the Beavers to an 87-96-1 record and the 1999 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) Tournament title. Cook helped Bluffton to the program's first consecutive 20-win seasons and ranks second on the school's career softball coaching wins list. As a rookie head coach, she won the HCAC's 1999 Coach of the Year Award for turning a unit that went 7-21 in 1998 into conference champions. Thirteen Bluffton players received first-team all-conference honors under Cook's tutelage in five seasons, including Erin Kurtz, the 2000 HCAC Most Valuable Player. Bluffton went 38-27-1 in conference contests in Cook's tenure.

Cook, who also served as an assistant professor of health, physical education and recreation at Bluffton, represented the Heartland Conference on the 2002-03 NCAA Division III Central Region Regional Advisory Committee that helped determine the NCAA Championship field. She is a member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

A 1992 graduate of the University of Charleston (WV), Cook grew up in Kenna, WV, and attended Ripley High School. She earned four varsity softball letters at Charleston in addition to a bachelor's degree in psychology. Cook received a master's degree in counseling psychology from the University of Kansas in 1994 and is pursuing a doctorate degree in sport psychology from West Virginia University.

Cook inherits all 13 letter winners from Guilford's 12-19 team that reached the 2003 Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament in its first varsity season since 1990. The Quakers sponsored a slow-pitch team from 1980-1989 before moving to a fast-pitch team in 1990. Guilford did not offer softball as a varsity sport after the 1990 campaign.

- photos courtesy of Bluffton Sports Information