Softball
- Title:
- Volunteer Assistant Coach
In her first season as a Duck volunteer assistant coach, Julie Strand helped the Ducks to one of its greatest campaigns ever in 2011.
Oregon (42-16) ended the season ranked 14th nationally after it scored its second straight (and ever) Super Regional bid. In months prior, UO posted its best Pac-10 finish and record (third-tie, 11-10) since the league expanded to eight teams in 1993. Oregon's .724 winning percentage was its third-highest ever after it capped the year with a 3-0 run in the Penn State Regional and 0-2 ledger at national runner-up and No. 3 Florida.
The last month of the regular season, UO shined as one of the nation's hottest teams after it won nine of its last 12 league tilts and claimed its last four Pac-10 series. The Ducks took three-game sets from then-No. 12 UCLA and then-No. 10 Stanford for the first time since 2005 and 2007 and ended 15- and 10-game losing streaks; claimed its first Civil War sweep of Oregon State since 1994; and took a series from eight-time national champion Arizona for only the third time in the rivalry dating back to 1984.
Stat-wise, the squad left an equal impressive legacy on the school record books in '11. The pitching staff combined on 446 strikeouts in 378 innings, and that 1.17 average per inning was just off its school record from 2010 (470, 381.2 innings (1.23 K/Inning). At the plate, UO's home run tally (71) was an overall and per-game record (1.22), and so was its runs (5.14 p/g) and slugging (.484) marks. Other top-five team season marks came in the following categories: total bases (third, 12.26 p/g), batting (fourth, .291) and RBI (fifth, 4.50 p/g),
In NCAA rankings, UO was easy to spot in home runs (14th, 1.22 p/g), and stood top 60 in five other categories: slugging (21st, .484), win-loss percentage (25th, 0.724), ERA (41st, 2.17), scoring (54th, 5.14 p/g) and batting (54th, .291). Four individuals also stood top 100 - Kaitlin Vitek (sacrifice flies, 18th, 4), Jessica Moore (saves, 31st, 3; wins, 34th, 24; strikeouts, 50th, 224, shutouts, 66th, 6, ERA, 70th, 1.90; hits allowed, 70th, 5.32 p/ 7 innings), Monique Fuiava (doubles, 75th, 0.26 p/g) and Kelsey Chambers (home runs, 75th, 13; sacrifice flies, 76th, 3).
Among the pupils Strand directly oversaw, Alexa Peterson won the team's defensive MVP award, and was an All-Region Second Team and All-Pac-10 Freshman Team honoree. The freshman catcher also paced the team in batting in Pac-10 play (.356), and ranked second in all games in slugging (.525) and on-base percentage (.400), third in batting (.344) and game-winning RBI (4) and fourth in doubles (6) and multi-hit games (9).
Strand joined the Duck fold after she served the previous two seasons as the head coach at Southern Utah (2009-10) and four seasons as its assistant coach (2005-08).
In that stretch, she helped the Thunderbirds advance twice to the NCAA Tournament (2006-07) after three Mid-Con Conference tourney championships (2005-07) and a pair of regular season league titles (2005-06).
At the plate her first season at the helm, Southern Utah ranked seventh nationally in triples in 2009 (0.36 per game), and also stood top 100 in doubles (53rd, 1.29 p/g), home runs (77th, 0.67 p/g), slugging (86th, .404) and scoring (97th, 4.18 runs p/g).
Individually, her players were equally easy to spot on the national rolls that season as shortstop Aly Daniels and third baseman Darleen Fernandez were picked to the All-Summit League First Team, and the trio of Kristina Brooks, Caroline Fernandez and Jenavieve Purcell picked up Summit League All-Tournament honors.
At the end of the 2009 season, three Thunderbirds stood top 40 nationally in triples – Daniels (15th, 0.12 p/g), Norian James (24th, 0.10 p/g) and Purcell (33rd, .09 p/g) – while others ranked top 60 included Darleen Fernandez (RBI, 29th, 0.95 p/g; home runs, 56th, 0.24 p/g) and Brooks (wins, 48th, 22; walks, 13th, 0.80 p/g)
In 2010, James and catcher Brittany Henderson added All-Summit League First- and Second-Team laurels, respectively, and James ranked 22nd nationally in stolen bases (0.60 per game),
In her four prior seasons as an assistant coach, the program posted 18-6 and 21-3 league marks in 2005 and ’06 en route to Mid-Con Conference regular season titles, then added top-three finishes in 2007 (second, 12-6) and ’08 (third, 12-9). Those squads featured three league players of the year - Tiffany Burt (2005) and Marci Pratt (2006, ’07) - among their 11 first-team and seven second-team All-Mid-Con Conference honorees.
Before her arrival in Cedar City, Utah, Strand served as an assistant softball coach at Denton High School in Denton, Texas in the winter and spring of 2004, and served the prior fall slate as an assistant softball coach at the University of Southern Colorado.
As a player for Colorado State University-Pueblo, the two-time Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference all-league pick and one-time honorable mention reset school records for games played and at-bats.
She graduated from CSUP with a B.S. in biology, and added a master’s degree in kinesiology from Texas Women’s University in 2007.
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