LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The NFCA is pleased to announce Immaculata University head coach Stefanie Feinstein and James Clemens High School (Ala.) assistant coach Sydney Sanders are the 2024 recipients of the Mary Nutter Scholarship. Feinstein and Sanders will receive funding to attend the 2024 NFCA National Convention, Dec. 4-7 at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas, Texas.
Reviewed and voted on by the NFCA Awards Committee, the Mary Nutter Scholarship is an educational grant named for the former Pittsburg State (Kan.) head coach and 1997 NFCA Hall of Fame inductee who founded the National Sports Clinics. It seeks to continue Nutter’s effort to provide softball coaches at all levels access to the best minds in the sport to help them become better coaches themselves.
Feinstein and Sanders will be awarded a complimentary Convention registration, $700 in travel reimbursement and up to four nights at the Convention’s host hotel.
Feinstein is in her eighth year in the college coaching ranks and fourth as the part-time head coach at Immaculata. Taking over a program that won four games in 2021, Feinstein has seen the program improve in the victory department each season, while also spending countless hours developing a team culture that student-athletes want to be a part of.
“Connecting with other coaches is how I have developed my coaching style,” said Feinstein. “I want to learn from the best and bring new ideas back to the University that can not only help our program, but other programs on campus, while being able to give my players the best experience possible and help prepare them for what comes next in life after college and softball.”
According to James Clemens’ head coach Bradley Kimbrough, a 2015 Mary Nutter recipient himself, Sanders has found her niche in coaching and mentoring young ladies following a successful as a collegiate player at the University of North Alabama. She is balancing going back to school to pursue a Master’s in Education so she can teach, while also holding a job as a landscaper.
Kimbrough continues to emphasize that she is becoming one of the best assistants he has had in terms of work ethic, dedication and enthusiasm. Sanders is eager to learn all she can, soaking up knowledge and methods from our other coaches.
“Sydney is a young lady who found her calling in coaching after pursuing a degree in another field,” said Kimbrough. “Due to her degree field, she volunteers her time as a coach while returning to school. She is sacrificing time and money for the sake of the young people in our program. She is committed to make this work for the betterment of others, not herself. I am completely confident that the more training and the more opportunities for learning she is exposed to will accelerate her growth as an incredible coach in the near future.”
Feinstein and Sanders will be recognized on Thursday, Dec. 5 during the Convention’s annual mentoring workshop.
ABOUT NUTTER
Nutter, who passed away in July 2012, compiled a 204-125 record over eight years at Pittsburg State University. She got her start in coaching with three years as a graduate assistant at Michigan State, after seven years as a teacher in nearby Elsie, Mich.
In 1981, Nutter won the first of three NAIA District 10 titles and the first of her three District 10 Coach of the Year honors (1981, 1982, 1985). That 1981 squad finished fourth at the NAIA national championship and she served as an assistant coach for the 1983 Pan American Tri-Nationals team and was a member of the 1984 U.S. Pan American selection committee. Nutter was a 1988 inductee into the NAIA Hall of Fame.
As a player, Nutter was a two-time first-team All-American (1974-75) for the Lansing Laurels, an ASA Women’s Major fastpitch team and spent 1976 as player-coach for the Michigan Travelers of the Women’s Professional Softball League.
The NFCA (National Fastpitch Coaches Association) is the professional organization for fastpitch softball coaches. Known for its extensive awards and scholarships program, the NFCA also educates and supports softball coaches on a variety of different levels: from NFCA podcasts to a comprehensive drills database, to in-person events and a National Convention.
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