Jon Gordon
Keynote Speaker
Author of The Energy Bus
Gordon, a well-respected speaker, consultant and author, will present the keynote address at this year’s “Live, Learn, Love... Coaching” NFCA National Convention.
Gordon is a speaker, consultant and author of the international best seller The Energy Bus, The No Complaining Rule, Training Camp, The Shark and The Goldfish and his newest book Soup: A Recipe to Nourish your Team and Culture.
Gordon and his books have been featured on CNN, NBC’s Today Show and in Forbes, Fast Company, O Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. His principles have been put to the test by numerous NFL coaches and teams, hospitals, Fortune 500 Companies, school districts and countless leaders in business, healthcare and education.
Gordon is a graduate of Cornell University and holds a master’s in teaching from Emory University. When he’s not speaking to businesses, hospitals or schools, you can find him playing tennis or lacrosse with his wife and two “high energy” children.
Brian Cain
Pre-Convention Seminar Speaker
Noted Speaker and Author - Expert on Peak Performance
Cain, an expert in the field of peak performance and sport psychology, will present a four-hour preconvention seminar on “Peak Performance Softball - Making Masters of The Mental Game."
Cain’s PRIDE (Personal Responsibility In Daily Excellence) Program will be a key component of the presentation, in addition to sharing fundamental and advanced mental skills you can use immediately to make a difference in your program. Learn how to:
• Develop core covenants that serve as the foundation of any successful team;
• Get your athletes to play in the present - one pitch at a time, and
• Give yourself a better chance to WIN by focusing on the process and by structuring pre-game and ingame routines.
He will also provide you with some strategies to increase your intensity of practice and ways in which to make practice more game-like.
A former baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton and high school softball coach, Cain has worked with top athletic teams across the country in various sports including Alabama softball and various teams at Vanderbilt, Auburn, Tennessee, Maryland, Iowa, James Madison, Coastal Carolina, Ole Miss, Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and more. He has worked as the Peak Performance Coach of the Washington Nationals Professional Baseball Club, with three Ultimate Fighting Championship world champions, and the Austrian and Russian Olympic organizations.
“Brian came highly recommended to me by several coaches across the country,” said Patrick Murphy, Alabama head coach. “He was very instrumental in the success of a very young team at Alabama in 2010. His presentation of the mental game is excellent and had my team’s attention the entire time."
Cain is currently a high school athletic director in Vermont and travels close to 40 weekends a year to work with colleges and high schools across the country on developing coaches, athletes and teams in the area of peak performance and mental toughness. Cain is the author of The ABCs of Peak Performance, which features the Cain-created PRIDE (Personal Reponsibility in Daily Excellence) program.
Tony Abbatine
Founder and International Director, Frozen Ropes Training Centers
As the catalyst behind the Frozen Ropes teaching model, Abbatine is responsible for the training program and instructional model used at all Frozen Ropes locations. Tony is the author of numerous articles on player development and his work in the baseball industry has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, ESPN, USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Baseball America and various television media.
As a consultant to their player development department, Tony has been hired by several major league baseball organizations, most recently, New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Boston Red Sox, the Colorado Rockies, and the New York Mets. During these assignments, Tony has presented the Frozen Ropes Visual Mechanics and Showtime (mental skills) training models to the coaching staff and players, both in Spring Training and during the season. Since 1990, numerous major league players have refined their skills in the off-season under Abbatine's watchful eye.
On the international scene, Tony has provided coaching instruction to elite level Italian, French, German and Japanese teams, both in the United States and abroad
Dee Abrahamson
NCAA Secretary-Rules Editor
Abrahamson enters her 12th year as the Associate Athletics Director for Northern Illinois University and her 30th year overall on the DeKalb campus. Presently the Interim Senior Woman Administrator for NIU Athletics, Abrahamson was the Huskies' head softball coach from 1979 to 1994, including a College World Series berth in 1988, and totaled a career-record of 416-286-5.
In her current duties with NIU, Abrahamson oversees internal affairs units of athletic department including personnel, facilities, events, camps, clinics, athletic business, NCAA compliance, information technology offices, in addition to oversight of several sport teams.
Abrahamson has served as the NCAA Softball Secretary Rules editor since 1996, and her responsibilities include all rule interpretations, editing the annual rule book, educational programs for coaches, umpires and is also the liaison to the National Federation of High Schools and Amateur Softball Association, which is the National Governing Board for the sport.
Carol Bruggeman
Associate Head Coach, University of Louisville
Entering her sixth season as associate head coach at the University of Louisville, Carol Bruggeman has helped Head Coach Sandy Pearsall take the Cardinals to national prominence. During her tenure, the Cardinals have earned five consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament, won two Big East championships and earned several top 25 rankings.
Bruggeman's previous coaching stops included Purdue University (head coach), University of Michigan (assistant coach) and University of Iowa (graduate assistant). She earned numerous accolades as a student-athlete at the University of Iowa and was also inducted into the Iowa Softball Association Hall of Fame.
In 2006, Bruggeman was elected president of the NFCA. From 1996-2000, Bruggeman was also on the NFCA Board of Directors as the Division I Representative.
Connie Clark
Head Coach, University of Texas
Clark has built the University of Texas softball program into one of the nation's most successful teams, since starting elevating the squad from club level to Division I competition prior to the 1997 season.
In only 14 seasons as a varsity program, Clark - the 1987 Broderick National Softball Player of the Year as a collegian - has led UT to four Women's College World Series appearances (1998, 2003, 2005 and 2006), 11 NCAA Tournament appearances (1998-2000, 2002-03, 2005-10), five Big 12 Conference Tournament titles (1999, 2002, 2003 and 2005) and four Big 12 regular-season titles (2002, 2003, 2006 and 2010).
Clark, a standout athlete in her playing days, has been associated with national-caliber softball programs everywhere she has been. As an assistant coach at Florida State (1990-95), Clark helped build the Seminoles into a national softball power and led FSU to four appearances in the NCAA Women's College World Series and to five NCAA Regional appearances.
Linda Garza
Associate Head Coach, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Garza has just been named the new associate head coach at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Before joining the Poly staff, Garza was head coach at Wright State, where the squad finished 31-30-1 in 2010, winning the Horizon League Tournament title and earning a spot in regional tournament competition.
Under Garza, Wright State reached the 30-win plateau for just the fifth time in program history. After finishing second in the Horizon League regular season standings, Garza's squad rallied through the losers' bracket, winning three straight games to take the tournament title. WSU ranked second nationally in stolen bases per game, first in total number of stolen bases, 25th in batting average and 44th in scoring. Wright State set single season records in games played, at bats, hits, walks and stolen bases.
Garza arrived at Wright State after serving as the top assistant at Purdue from 2005-09. Under Garza's guidance, Purdue established five program offensive records while 10 Boilermakers earned All-Big Ten Conference honors.
Kate Grace, RPT, OPA-C
Founder, Kate Grace Physical Therapy
Grace is a physical therapist and orthopedic physician assistant. She founded Kate Grace Physical Therapy in 1985. This very progressive rehabilitation clinic treats a wide variety of patients with acute and surgical orthopedic injuries, postural dysfunctions and athletic and industrial injures of the spine and extremities.
Grace received her degree in physical therapy from The Ohio State University in 1979. From 1979 to 1982 Grace was a staff physical therapist at Children's Hospital in San Diego. In 1982, she planned, opened and supervised the new Sharp Orthopedic Outpatient Physical Therapy Department at Sharp Hospital in San Diego. Grace was also the supervisor of the Physical Therapy Clinic at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, where over 100 athletes were treated per day.
Grace's OPA license was obtained in 1994. She has a special interest in patellofemoral dysfunction since she has suffered with the problem since she was 12 years old. She has undergone eight painful knee surgeries and years of rehabilitation. After treating patellofemeral patients and researching the problem for the past 20 years, Grace and her associates developed the OnTrack System. This is a unique, non-surgical method for the management of patellofemoral dysfunction. Research has proven that the OnTrack System is the only one that realigns the patella and can return the joint anatomy back to normal.
Bo Hanson
Four-Time Olympian and Coaching Consultant
In 1992, Bo Hanson at 18-years-old became the youngest ever rowing Olympian for Australia. Since his first Olympics, he has won bronze medals in the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games.
Utilizing his learning experiences from the Olympics as well as formal university training and development qualifications, Bo has founded and developed two businesses, Team 8 and Athlete Assessments. Both businesses are designed to enable people to achieve their best performances whatever their field of endeavor. He is highly educated and accredited in the use and administration of the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator, DISC Profiling and Emotional Intelligence (Emotional Competence Inventory 360).
Athlete Assessments was the first global business specializing in online sports specific behavioral profiling tool for athletes, sports teams and coaches. Clients include some of the top USA colleges, national and professional teams to amateur sports clubs. It has now grown to include specialist services including sports program reviews, coach development workshops, team consultations and one-on-one sessions for coaches and athletes.
In the corporate world, Hanson has presented to many of Australia's largest companies, including the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Macquarie Bank, American Express, Bain Consulting, Insurance Australia Group and Telstra.
Ryan Harrison
Slow the Game Down Visual Training Performance
Harrison, a Sports Performance Vision Trainer, has a degree in Exercise Physiology from University of California at Davis. He joined SlowTheGameDown and Dr. Bill Harrison, an original pioneer in sports visual performance training, full time 10 years ago. SlowTheGameDown with the help of Harrison has been instrumental in creating, developing and pushing the limits in training the visual system of various athletes.
Harrison's approach to performance enhancement has helped athletes, coaches and performers of all levels achieve success on a more consistent basis through the use of visual performance training. He spent the last year working closely with the World Champion San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays on the field and in the cages on specific training methods that affect the visual and mental sides of the game.
Harrison has worked with U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand National Softball Teams, as well as numerous collegiate and amateur softball teams and players. He has worked for over 12 major-league baseball teams in the past 10 years and has personally trained over 250 pro baseball players on the visual side of the game - among them are major-leaguers Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, Mike Sweeney, Jack Cust, Carlos Quentin, Delmon Young, Joe Borchard, Jayson Werth, Raul Ibanez, John Baker, Jerry Hairston, Jr., Chris Dickerson, Josh Willingham, Jonny Gomes and Michael Stanton, among others.
Kelly Inouye-Perez
Head Coach, UCLA
Inouye-Perez is in her fifth season as head coach at UCLA. During the 2010 campaign, Inouye-Perez guided the Bruins past Pac-10 rival Arizona to win the school's 12th softball national championship. In 2009, the Bruins captured the Pac-10 championship.
Overall, this is Inouye-Perez's 23rd season on the UCLA campus, as the head coaching stint came on the heels of highly-successful careers as both a player and later as an assistant coach. Only the third head coach in UCLA history, Inouye-Perez has been a part of seven different national championship teams.
The playing career for Inouye-Perez also included four different ASA national championships, as well as competing internationally for several seasons and also a stop on the NPF Pro Tour.
Mike Larabee
Head Coach, University of Arkansas
Larabee is beginning his second season as head coach at the University of Arkansas. In his first season with the Razorbacks, Larabee led UA to a 28-29 overall record, losing in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Prior to coming to Fayetteville, Larabee spent five seasons as head coach at Wright State University. At Wright State, Larabee's squads finished in the Top 15 of virtually every offensive category in his final three seasons. Wright State qualified for NCAA postseason play in both 2007 and 2008.
In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Larabee is a two-time member of the United States Women's National Softball team coaching pool and was a two-time all-world selection during his playing career.
Beth McClendon
Head Coach, Florida International University
McClendon is entering her fourth season as head coach at Florida International University. Since McClendon's arrival on campus, FIU has increased its win total each year of her tenure. A record-breaking 2010 season saw the Golden Panthers post a record of 38-21 as the Panthers secured the program's second-ever NCAA Tournament bid and FIU softball's first-ever NCAA Tournament victory.
The Panthers lost to Florida in the championship game of the Gainesville Regional. Along the way, FIU picked up four NFCA All-Region nods and five All-Sun Belt Conference selections, including four first-team picks. In addition, the Panthers completed an SBC awards sweep as senior Kasey Barrett was named Pitcher of the Year, sophomore Ashley McClain was tabbed Player of the Year and Brie Rojas was named Freshman of the Year, while McClendon earned SBC Co-Coach of the Year distinction, her second time receiving the award as she was also named the 2008 Sun Belt coach of the year in her first year at FIU.
This past summer, McClendon helped lead the USSSA Florida Pride to the franchise's first-ever National Professional Fastpitch (NPF) Championship, as she made her NPF debut as an assistant coach. The No. 2-seeded Pride, whose roster boasted seven Olympians, defeated regular season champion Chicago in three games to take home the title. Prior to her arrival at FIU, McClendon spent six years at the University of Houston (2002-07), helping the Cougars to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and taking charge of a pitching unit that was statistically ranked as one of the best in the nation.
Teena Murray
Director of Olympic Sports Performance, University of Louisville
As Director of Olympic Sports Performance, Murray oversees the strength and conditioning and performance nutrition programs for University of Louisville Olympic sports. She works primarily with women's soccer, women's basketball and softball.
Murray came to UL in 2004 after four years as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Connecticut. At UConn, she helped lead the Huskies' field hockey and women's soccer teams to multiple Big East Championships and NCAA appearances, including the soccer national championship game in 2003. Prior to UConn, Murray spent three-and-a-half years as Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning at Cornell University.
In addition to her work at the collegiate level, Murray also has worked as a consultant for the NHL's Florida Panthers and Anaheim Ducks, and the Hartford Wolfpack of the American Hockey League. She is currently the head strength coach for the U.S. Women's National Hockey Team.
Tony Rico
Owner & Instructor, Softball Connection - Head Coach, Worth Firecrackers
Rico is the owner and instructor of Softball Connection, a 6,000 square foot indoor batting and practice facility in Huntington Beach, California. Rico is also head coach of the ultra-successful travel team, the Worth Firecrackers.
Rico's name is well know within the fastpitch circuit nationwide. Beginning in the early 1990s, he devoted all of his expertise and experience as a player and coach to exclusively training softball players. He took his unique style of training to Firecracker softball in 1991.
Rico worked with Gary Wardein for 13 years to develop a strong organization based on sound principles and fundamentals. After taking over the reins in 2003, the Firecrackers today continue to stress personal development as well as academic and athletic achievement. His Gold teams have participated in every major showcase tournament in the country, and continue to place their players in the nation’s top universities year after year
Martin Rubinoff
Lead Hitting Instructor, Texas Baseball/Softball Ranch
Rubinoff has been the lead hitting instructor at the Texas Baseball/Softball Ranch for each of the past two years.
Rubinoff comes from a national and collegiate background as he has served as a hitting instructor for the Australian national baseball programs as well as California state baseball champions, Riverside Community College. His training protocols fall directly in line with Coach Ron Wolforth and his desire to train baseball players as athletic and dynamic at their position.
Rubinoff's vast expertise in identifying and instituting the best possible training methods with Athletic Hitting System serves as his foundation in getting hitters to be as explosive and healthy for the demands that the youth, high school, college and professional levels require.
Don Slaught
President, RightView Pro
Slaught is president of RightView Pro, a software company designed to help baseball and softball players improve hand-eye coordination by using the latest in video technology.
A 16-year major-league baseball veteran, Slaught has coached on almost every level, from the youth leagues to the majors. Slaught credits his longevity to a desire to always learn more about the game.The evidence proves this out. In his first eight years in the Big Leagues, Slaught hit .269 compared to his last eight years where he averaged over .300. In his final five full seasons, he had a .310 average.
Slaught is quick to point out that the success of a coach is not based on knowing how to hit but rather on knowing how to get others to hit. They are two different skills. The goal of RVP was to speed up the learning curve by developing a system to allow coaches and players to see, understand, and communicate more effectively.
Frank Spaniol
Professor of Kinesiology, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi
Dr. Spaniol serves as Professor of Kinesiology at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi where he teaches biomechanics and directs the Sport Science Research Laboratory.
He served as the Head Baseball Coach at Morehead State University from 1989-95 and Head Softball Coach at Georgia Southwestern State University in 1996. Dr. Spaniol is recognized as a leading softball and baseball researcher and presents his findings worldwide, recently traveling to China to work with their National Softball and Baseball Teams.
Spaniol publishes and presents extensively and in 2009 was honored as a Fellow by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Mattheus E. Stephens, Esq.
Stock Stephens, LLP
Stephens is a partner in the San Diego-based law firm Stock Stephens, LLP and a lecturer at the University of California, San Diego, where he teaches three courses including "Gender Equality and the Law." Stephens recently won a ground-breaking Title IX case against Mesa Community College for retaliating against the head women's basketball coach for raising Title IX concerns.
After graduating from Rutgers School of Law, Stephens' legal career began at Gray Cary Ames & Frye as a litigation associate. He has served as a Pro Term Judge since 1999 and was appointed by Mayor Jerry Sanders to the City Civil Service Commission in 2008.
Michelle Venturella
Head Coach, University of Illinois at Chicago
The 2009 Horizon League Coach of the Year, Venturella is beginning her third season at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2009, the Flames won 16 league games for the first time since 2004 and came within one win of qualifying for regional play.
Venturella arrived at UIC after spending six seasons as associate head coach at the University of Iowa under head coach Gayle Blevins, serving as the recruiting coordinator and hitting coach while also mentoring the team's catchers.
For Venturella, her playing career also included a six-year stint on the USA National Team. She was part of Gold Medal winning teams at the 1998 World Championships and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Tracy Warren
Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek Attorneys
Warren is an attorney for Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek, based out of San Diego. Her practice emphasizes employment counsel and litigation, sports representation, negotiation and litigation, and business litigation.
Warren received her B.A., magna cum laude, from the College of New Jersey in 1987. At CNJ, Warren was inducted into the Academic All-American Hall of Fame. In 1989, she earned her masters in journalism from Temple University and her J.D. from the University of Notre Dame in 1999.
Warren joined the Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek team in 2006, following several years of practice in both Maryland and California. Prior to her legal career, Warren was an Emmy award-winning sports broadcaster.
Mike White
Head Coach, University of Oregon
White is in his second season as head coach at University of Oregon. In his first year with the Ducks, White led Oregon to one of the nation's best turn-arounds, capping the season by winning the Atlanta Regional to advance to super regional play.
During the 2010, the Ducks set a new school record for strikeouts in a season (470). UO finished 33rd in the nation in hitting and were 47th in the nation in home runs per game. Offensively, the .299 team batting average was also a new school single-season standard.
An International Softball Congress Hall of Famer and 30-year coaching veteran, is in his second stint as a coach in Eugene, where he previously was an assistant coach for the Ducks in 2003 and 2004.
Spencer Wood
President, Icebox Athlete
For the past 10 years, Spencer Wood has traveled the Globe as an author, teacher and speaker on Mental Skills & Toughness Training. Notable conventions at which Spencer has presented include the NCAA Final Four (4x), the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (3x) and the American Baseball Coaches Association. Spencer has also worked with U.S. Olympic coaching clinics, NBA teams, and championship collegiate programs from conferences including the ACC, Big Ten, SEC, Big East and Big 12.
Spencer has a Masters Degree in Exercise Science from California University, and a PhD (ABD) in motivational psychology with an emphasis on sport psychology. His articles have appeared in publications such as The WBCA Journal and World Class Coaching, and his workshops have been featured on networks such as ESPN and NBC.
Spencer is currently a visiting sport psychologist at the University of Florida, working with numerous elite teams on campus, including the University of Florida Softball team.