By Brad King

Photo: UGA pitcher Rhonda Coffelt prepares to hurl a pitch. Right: UGA teammates (from left) Karin Wieting, Chrissy Gavin, Lisa Schutt, Rhonda Coffelt and Jessi Cerra congratulate each other on a winning effort. Photos by Rick O'Quinn.

Fast-pitch softball at UGA got off to a good start on Feb. 15. The Lady Dogs swept a double-header against Mercer, winning the inaugural game 5-1 and the second 2-1 before a crowd of nearly 700 at UGA's intramural fields.

Head coach Alleen Hawkins--UGA's first head softball coach--admitted she was very pleased.

Conversations with Hawkins typically end in a hurry. Not because she's rude. There's just way too much to do when you're starting a new Division I women's sport. She concludes most of her conversations with: "Hope to see you at some of our games."

One of nine in the SEC
UGA is one of nine SEC schools unveiling women's fast-pitch softball programs this year. Highly ranked South Carolina has competed at the Division I level for several seasons, and Tennessee fielded its first team last year. Vanderbilt will add softball next year, the last school in the conference to do so.

"Starting new programs seems to be my calling in life," says Hawkins, 42, whose resume includes a region title at Chesapeake (Md.) College, where she created the program from scratch, and two Southern Conference championships at nearby Furman, where softball went from poor stepchild to one of the hottest tickets on campus.

Now Hawkins is in Athens to try to work her magic once again. "It's nice to come to Georgia with a lot of financial support, and no bad reputation like we had at Furman. Then again, we don't have any tradition," she says. "It's difficult to recruit some of the top players from the West Coast if you're not a proven winner, so, in that respect, it's going to be a challenge for all the SEC schools."

Inaugural season schedule
In its inaugural season, UGA will battle four teams ranked in the USA Today/National Fast-pitch Coaches Association preseason Top 25, along with a twin bill against two-time defending Division II national champion Kennesaw State.

Hawkins brought several players with her from Furman, including sophomore left-handed pitcher Rhonda Coffelt and All-Southern Conference left fielder Jamie Rausch. Experts say fast-pitch softball is 80 percent pitching, and Hawkins has another formidable hurler in recruit Natalie Price, a high school All-American from Virginia. Coffelt picked up the win for the first game and Price was the winning pitcher in the second.

Freshman Jen Bell (outfield) hit two home runs in the first game, and left-fielder Jamie Rausch won the second with a double with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Home games this year will be played at the Recreational Sports Complex next to the intramural fields. The team hopes to be in its permanent softball stadium--at the new Soccer-Softball Complex on South Milledge Avenue beyond the Athens Perimeter--by spring 1998.