Deb Robitaille recently wrapped up her 10th season with the Southern New Hampshire University softball team, and her fourth as head coach. She was named head coach on May 31, 2005. Robitaille spent six years as assistant softball coach before being promoted to head coach. She also serves as assistant women's soccer coach at the University.
Over her first four seasons,
Robitaille has posted a record of 85-81 and garnered
Northeast-10 Coach of the Year honors in her first
two seasons, while her 85 victories makes her the winningest
coach in program history in terms of wins. In 2006 she guided the
Penmen to their first-ever appearances in the NE-10 and NCAA
Tournaments, while in 2007 the Penmen won a school-record
24 games and made a second consecutive trip to the NE-10
tourney. SNHU also qualified for the Northeast-10 Tournament
this past season.
Robitaille is a 1984 graduate of Manchester Memorial High School where she was a member of the girl's soccer team and collected first-team All-State honors as a senior. She also participated in the Lion's Cup All-Star game following her senior year.
The UNH-Manchester graduate served as girl's junior varsity soccer coach at Memorial High School from 1986 to 1995, before being named head girl's soccer coach at Concord High School in 1996. She spent three years at Concord and also served as goalkeeping coach at Keene State College during her final season with the Crimson Tide.
Robitaille has also coached in the
Manchester South Junior Soccer League and the U14 Granite State
Travel League.
Roger Hebert begins his tenth season as assistant softball coach at SNHU. He has previously served as an assistant coach at Daniel Webster College, Memorial High School and Hooksett Junior High School.
Hebert was a long-time head coach
of Roger's Renegades, an over 30 softball team, and led the team to
three national titles, two national runner-up finishes and one
national third place finish.
A familiar face to the followers of SNHU softball, Mel Keeler begins her fifth season as an assistant coach.
One of the top players in the
history of the program, she was a three-year member of the
team (2002-04) and led the Penmen to 49 victories and a then
program-record 19 wins as a senior. A two-time SNHU Female
Athlete of the Year and one-time Northeast-10 Conference
all-star selection, she established the season-record for wins
(15), earned run average (0.86) and strikeouts (135) as a junior
and closed out her career as the program's career-leader in
strikeouts (300) and earned run average (1.21). She also finished
tied for the school-record in career wins with 32. Not to be
overlooked, she also owns a .301 career batting average and ranks
sixth among the program's all-time leaders in career hits with 105.
She spent one year at NH Technical Institute before enrolling at
SNHU and collected NSCAA All-America honors in her one season with
NHTI.
Keeler is a 1998 graduate of
Concord (NH) High School and earned Class L all-state honors in
both softball and volleyball. She was also named Class L Player
of the Year for softball as a senior.
