Two American fastpitch pitching coaches/pitchers will spend three months in the UK this summer, funded by grants awarded by Sport England to four clubs or leagues around the country who want to develop fastpitch – and especially fastpitch pitchers.
The grants of £4,250 each, from Sport England's Small Grants programme, have been awarded to Richings Park Softball Club, Maidenhead Softball Club, the new East Midlands Fastpitch League and the Norfolk Softball Association.
The grant applications were coordinated on behalf of the four recipient organisations by the GB Management Committee (GBMC), a semi-autonomous arm of the British Softball Federation chaired by National Teams Officer Beth Perkins. The intention of the GBMC was to start what will hopefully be an ongoing pitcher development programme in the UK. While we have developed many talented home-grown fastpitch players over the past 20 years, we have yet to develop pitchers that can hold their own in international competition.
The money will be used to bring the two American coaches, Megan Brown and Katy Austin, to the UK from May through mid-August. Megan Brown arrived in the UK on May 12 and Katy Austin will arrive at the end of the month. They will teach pitching to existing and aspiring fastpitch pitchers, particularly those on GB youth fastpitch teams; conduct other fastpitch and slowpitch training sessions at the funded clubs and elsewhere; and will pitch in the Great Britain Fastpitch League to help raise the standard of play and give members of GB national teams playing in the league at-bats against quality pitching.
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Megan Brown
Megan Brown, who has been the Pitching Coach for the GB Women's Team since 2011, has just finished her second year as an Assistant Softball Coach at the University of North Carolina Pembroke.
A standout pitcher at Florida Southern University (where her catcher was former GB Women's Team star Leah English), Megan was a three-time All-American and holds virtually every career pitching record for the school. She was named the Sunshine State Conference Pitcher of the Year on three occasions, and was named the league’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year in 2007 after earning two academic All-American distinctions.
Following her collegiate career, Megan spent time with the Michigan Ice and Rockford Thunder of the National Pro Fastpitch Softball League, earning a league championship with the Thunder in 2009.
After joining the GB Women's Team staff in 2011 as Pitching Coach and as a guest pitcher in competitions where nationality is not required, Megan pitched for Great Britain in the 2011 World Cup of Softball in Oklahoma City, throwing a complete-game four-hitter in GB's 3-2 win over the Czech Republic and also started the fifth-place game in which GB beat the Czechs 6-1. In 2012, Megan pitched for the GB Women in the Elite Division at the Canadian Open Championships, where the team reached the final.
Prior to coming to UNC Pembroke, Megan spent two years as a volunteer at Auburn, the latter as a coach, and has also pitched in the Italian and Dutch leagues.
Megan earned a Bachelor’s Degree in physical education from Florida Southern in 2007 and a Master’s Degree in education from the same school in 2009. She is currently finishing her Doctorate in sports pedagogy at Auburn.
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Katy Austin
Katy Austin has just completed her junior year as a pitcher at the University of North Carolina Pembroke, under the tutelage of Megan Brown, where is is studying exercise and sports science and is a member of the Future Teachers of America.
In her high school career, Katy was a four-year letter winner in softball and helped her team to a 10-2 overall record her senior year with a .490 batting average, a 1.000 fielding percentage and a 2.32 ERA and helped her team become area and district champions. As a junior, she was named All-District first-team and 2008 pitcher of the year and was a member of the 2007-2010 academic All-District teams in her area.