Softball names Perkins head coach

With the departure of Ehren Earleywhine to Missouri two weeks ago, Tech Director of Athletics Dan Radakovich was charged with making his first coaching hire. The search concluded when Sharon Perkins was announced on Tuesday.

For Earleywhine, the job offered him a return to his home state. Perkins will have big shoes to fill as she will be replacing a coach that led the Jackets to an ACC regular season and tournament championship in 2005 and NCAA tournament bids in all five seasons that he was with the program. Earleywhine's overall record in three seasons as head coach was 147-55.

"The coaches in the past have laid the foundation to keep it going and make it a great program," said new Head Coach Sharon Perkins at her press conference Tuesday.

"Now we are to this point where I don't want to come in here and change everything. I think it's on the right track and I would like to just keep this thing going and get it to the next level," Perkins said.

Before coming to Tech, Perkins played softball and earned a bachelor's degree in Biology at Nicholls State University from 1992 to 1996.

In 1998, she began her coaching career as an assistant coach at Southern Miss, and was hired in 2001 at Georgia as an assistant when current Georgia Head Coach Lu Harris-Champer was hired. Perkins has worked with Harris-Champer since she was a student assistant at Nicholls State in 1995.

"I think it will be pretty fun going up against [Harris-Champer]. There has been a rivalry between Georgia and Georgia Tech the last few years, so it will be fun. We think a lot of the same ways, so we might do a lot of the same things on the ballfield."

Last season at Georgia, Perkins helped guide the Bulldogs to a 54-15 overall record. The season ended with a loss to the No. 2 ranked Florida State Seminoles to fall short of the NCAA Super Regionals.

Perkins also helped lead Georgia to two SEC championships in the last four seasons and five consecutive NCAA Tournaments bids. This included the last two seasons that saw Georgia host NCAA Regionals.

One of the main concerns of Tech's softball program has been the need to update the current facilities for the sport. At her press conference, Perkins commented on this issue.

"We talked about it, and I know we'll be discussing it more. They have to look into the situation. I did not come here because of the facilities. What they have is a great start and I think we can keep going from that. We went to the World Series when I was at Southern Miss [as a coach] and we did not even have our own field on campus,"Perkins said.

Perkins will have help in her first year as head coach for the Jackets; Several key players from last year's team are returning.

These players include ACC Freshman of the Year Whitney Haller, who set the school record for home runs last season, All-ACC outfielder Cailtin Lever and Sarah Wood.