COACHES CLINIC FEATURES VILLANOVA, BINGHAMTON COACHES, AND HORSEHEADS GRAD TESS CITES (10 PHOTOS) (2023-08-02)

Southern Tier Sports Report
CHEMUNG, N.Y. — Area coaches and parents were able to pick the brains of a couple Division-I coaches at Tomasso’s Wednesday night.

Villanova University softball coach, Bridget Orchard, and Binghamton University softball coach, Jess Bump, both spoke to the audience, along with taking questions. Both are from the Southern Tier - Orchard graduated from Binghamton High School, while Bump graduated out of Windsor.

Other speakers were Horseheads grad and Villanova’s ‘Big East Player of the Year’ Tess Cites, Binghamton’s Brianna Santos, and Fordham standout Elise Fortier.

Topics ranged from recruiting to student life, and navigating the softball scene for prospective college athletes.

Orchard went over her coaching career - from Cabrini to Fordham to Villanova - and discussed recruiting the whole family, and how players and teams fit with one another. She also noted that non-athletic qualities they look for are loyalty, trust, academics, responsibility, and attitude.

Bump talked about how much enjoyed coaching in her home town - ‘this is where I want to be’ - and highlighted how her player, Santos, took a winding path to get to Binghamton. Santos talked about how she went through two different schools before landing in Binghamton.

Fortier discussed issues from the travel softball side of things, while Cites talked about what it takes to be a Division-I student-athlete.

In the question-and-answer portion topics ranged from how to navigate travel softball, what qualities the coaches look for in players and parents, social media and recruiting, along with the 1-sport athlete versus the 3-sport athlete, and recruiting players from the Northeast region versus the west or south.

The coaches also shared some personal stories.

This followed on the heels of a softball camp - ‘Train with the Champions Softball’ - presented by the Waverly Sports Complex for girls that ranged from eight to 18, run by the Villanova coaching staff.
——
PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING


Print Friendly Version