Heather Rush
Heather Rush

Bio


Heather Rush enters her third season as head softball coach at Mitchell College in 2018-19. In addition to her coaching duties, she also heads the community outreach programs for the department of athletics.

Rush made her collegiate head coaching debut with the Mariners in 2017, leading the program to 11 wins and a berth in the New England Collegiate Conference Championship. Last season Mitchell posted 14 wins and a 9-7 league record en route to another conference tournament appearance.

Rush came to Mitchell with a wealth of softball experience at the NJCAA, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division I levels. As a former junior college standout at Alvin Community College (TX), she led her team to a regional tournament appearance, set single season records for innings pitched and was voted MVP.  She later went on to participate at the NCAA Division I level as a pitcher at Troy University and Texas A&M, Corpus Christi.  

Rush served as an assistant coach and pitching coach at Alvin for two years prior to accepting a position at Chestnut Hill College (D-II) in Philadelphia, PA. After a short stint at Chestnut Hill, she accepted a position as the assistant coach/pitching coach at Drexel University (D-I).

Rush left Drexel in 2012 to become the top assistant and pitching coach at Providence College in the Big East Conference. There she assisted in all aspects of the program, both on and off the field, with a particular focus on pitching and outfield. Her final stop before joining the Mariners was at Bryant University, where she served as the top assistant and pitching coach.

In addition to her time as a college coach, Rush has served in multiple roles throughout the years as a softball camp clinician and instructor at prominent camps around the country. She has instructed various ages and levels of softball ability and formed connections with numerous high school and college coaches from all divisions around the country. She has worked as a pitching instructor and has run privately owned pitching clinics in both Pennsylvania and Texas.

Rush graduated from the University of Houston-Clear Lake with a degree in psychology. 

 

 

Meet The Coach
Alyssa Hancock

Alyssa Hancock was named the Interim Head Coach for the Mitchell College softball program in March of 2024.

Most recently, Hancock had served as an assistant coach with Mitchell softball for the past three seasons. Prior to her time in New London, she was the assistant coach at Muhlenberg College in 2016 and a graduate assistant at Springfield College from 2017-2019.

A decorated shortstop in her playing days, Hancock was a three-year All-Region selection at shortstop for Eastern Connecticut State University, and was only the fourth player in the 20-year history of the Little East Conference to be named player of the year in consecutive seasons. She was named a third-team All-American in 2015.

In her career, Hancock started all possible 158 games, concluding as the program’s all-time leader in assists (487) and doubles (48) and ranked second all-time in runs (155), stolen bases (75) and total bases (335), third in hits (202) and fourth in batting average (.394) and home runs (19).

A native of Waterford, Conn., Hancock graduated from Eastern Connecticut in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She then graduated from Springfield College in 2020 where she received her Master’s in Social Work.

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