Inside The Knights

Olympic Medalist Joins UCF Softball’s Coaching Staff

UCF Softball hires Canadian National Team and Olympic bronze medal winner Jenn Salling.

Guilherme Hiray Leal

UCF Softball announced the team is hiring Olympic medalist Jenn Salling to join the staff as an assistant coach.

“Her expertise with offense and defense will help us continue to succeed on the field,” head cach Cindy Ball-Malone said in a press release for UCF Athletics. “Her love, respect and understanding of the game will help us off the field as well."

But Salling is not new to the UCF Softball culture. She was Ball-Malone’ first volunteer assistant coach at UCF, staying with the team for seven months between 2018 and 2019.

"First and foremost, I want to thank Coach Ball-Malone and the UCF athletic department for the opportunity to be a part of Knight Nation," Salling said in the release. "I especially want to thank Coach Bear for entrusting me with the opportunity to join the UCF softball family, be a part of her staff and build upon the expectations and standards of excellence that it takes to be an NCAA Division I national champion.”

Currently, Salling is also the assistant coach and an Athletes Unlimited facilitator for the Canadian National Team.

As a player, she was a top 10 finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year when she was at the University of Oregon, where she started playing in 2007. She later won a national championship as part of the Washington Huskies.

She went to represent Canada in the 2008 and 2020 Olympics. In the latter, Salling led the team with a .571 batting average and added a home run as the Canadians took home the bronze medal.

She also participated in five WBSC Women’s Softball World Championships and four Pan American Games, winning gold in the 2015 edition.

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Guilherme Hiray Leal
GUILHERME HIRAY LEAL

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