Meet the Coaches

Donna Newberry
Head Coach

Donna Newberry begins her 35th season as head softball coach at Muskingum College as the all-time career wins leader in NCAA Division III with 858 victories.

During her tenure, she has become known as one of the most knowledgeable and successful leaders in the game and claimed Muskingum’s first National Championship in 2001. For all her accomplishments, Newberry was selected for induction into the December 2008 class of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

She has compiled an 858-382-1 (.692 winning percentage) overall record and an amazing 334-64-1 (.839) slate in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), including 18 overall conference championships and a current streak of 11 straight.

Newberry’s teams have been nothing short of spectacular the last nine seasons. Muskingum has posted an overall record of 381-67 (.850), including a 179-14 record (.927) against all OAC schools and earned the right to host the OAC Tournament by finishing atop the regular season standings in eight of those years. Muskingum has swept through the OAC regular season and tournament, and earned the No. 1 seed for the NCAA Regional Tournament in 10 of the last 11 years.

Newberry has led the Lady Muskies to the OAC tournament every year since its inception in 1985 and to the championship game 22 times, including 12 straight appearances from 1997-2008. In those 22 appearances, Muskingum won the OAC title 17 times.  Newberry’s peers have selected her for OAC Coach of the Year honors 10 times.

On the national level, she has led the Lady Muskies to 18 NCAA regional appearances, including 11 straight from 1998-2008, and eight NCAA Division III World Series appearances in ’92, ’98, ’01, ’03, ’04, ’05, ’06 and ’08.  In 2001, Muskingum won the league and NCAA Central Region tournaments.  At the NCAA Division III World Series, Newberry’s Lady Muskies powered their way past No. 1 seed Central College (Iowa) to claim the Division III National Softball Championship.  For those accomplishments, Newberry and her staff have been recognized as the NCAA Regional Coaching Staff of the Year seven times and were honored with the National Coaching Staff of the Year award in 2001.

Newberry has had one of her players named Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division III All-American for nine straight years and a total of 14 players have earned the distinction during her tenure. Furthermore, she has guided the Muskies to a national top-25 ranking every year since 1999.

Throughout Newberry’s career at the helm of the Muskies, she has served on the National Rules Committee, was the National Chair of the NFCA All American and Coaching Staff of the Year committees, and is currently serving on the National Softball Committee.

Newberry graduated from Glenville State (W.Va.) College in 1973 with a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education. She earned her master’s degree in physical education from Ohio University in 1974.

In addition to serving as head softball coach, Newberry is the assistant athletic director, director of intramural programs and a professor in the health and physical education department at Muskingum. She previously coached the Lady Muskie field hockey and women’s basketball programs. Her 403 victories in basketball make her the only women’s coach in NCAA Division III history to win more than 400 games in more than one sport.

Each summer, Newberry leaves the Muskingum campus for an educational experience. She says the purpose of her journeys is to help her become a wiser person through gaining an understanding of the world. Her journeys during the summers of 1999 and 2000 were to Guyana, South America, where she has taught the sport of softball to the natives. Some of her other destinations have included trips to Colorado for Outward Bound, the Betty Ford Center in Palm Springs, Calif., and to Alaska to live with the Koyukon Indians.

Kari Hoying
Assistant Coach

Kari Hoying enters her first season as an assistant coach for the Muskingum College softball coaching staff.

Bio coming soon.

John Ritts
Pitching Coach

John Ritts enters his first season as pitching coach for the Muskingum College softball coaching staff.

Ritts is the former head softball coach at Franciscan University and pitchng coach at Waynesburg University. He has 18 years of softball coaching experience and is the founder of the Junior High Spring Softball League in the Ohio Valley.

Ritts has attended more than 130 college coaching clinics and has presented clinics for more than 10 years. His former players have gone on to coach at both the college and high school ranks.