After starting the softball program at Dakota Wesleyan and turning around the program at Gustavus Adolphus Shanda Ness will look to do the same at Cornell College.
Ness was named the new head coach for a program that has won only nine Iowa Conference games in the last three years combined. Ness says it’s something she’s done before and it was enticing to her.
After posting a 9-20 record in her first season at Gustavus Adolphus, Ness led the program to five straight seasons of 20 or more wins and one Minnesota Conference championship. She says there are many factors that help a program get turned around but none are more important than recruiting. Ness says sometimes people thing you don’t have to recruit for division three, but she says recruiting is a big part of the game.
The Iowa Conference is considered to be one of the best division three softball leagues in the country and that also made the job appealing. Ness says her teams in Minnesota played a lot of Iowa Conference schools and she has great respect for them. Cornell finished 7-24 overall this past season under interim coach Kevin Kahler.