Christy Cameron spent nine
seasons at the helm of the
Youngstown State softball program
and finished her career at YSU with
a 164-271-1 overall record and
accumulated the second-highest
coaching win total in school
history. In 10 seasons as a head
coach, including one season at Saint
Francis (Pa.), Cameron owns a
180-299-1 career coaching record.
In 2008, Cameron
led the Penguins to a 12-37 overall
record and 6-16 mark in the Horizon
League.
The Penguins set
the school mark for most home runs
in a season with 39 and recorded 59
doubles, which ranks tied for third
on the single-season list..
Senior McKenzie Bedra, the school's
all-time home run leader with 34,
became just the third player in
school history and the first since
2004 to be named First-Team
All-Horizon League in consecutive
seasons. Bedra batted .333 with a
school-record 11 home runs and 32
runs batted in.
Freshman Rochelle
Vanyi broke the single-season home
run mark with 11 and was named to
the Horizon League All-Newcomer team
after batting .317. She also became
just the second player in school
history to record at least 10
doubles (11) and 10 home runs (11)
in the same season.
When Cameron
accepted the softball head coaching
position at Youngstown State
University in the fall of 1999, she
did so with one goal in mind - to
lead the program to a championship.
Seven seasons
later, Cameron’s and the Penguins’
goal came to fruition in the most
dramatic way.
Seeded sixth in
the 2006 Horizon League
Championship, Cameron led the
Penguins to four straight victories
on their home field - McCune Park-
including two wins over top-seeded
UIC, to capture the program’s first
conference title and berth to the
NCAA Regional Tournament.
Even more, the
most decorated player in YSU
softball history, Tiffany Patteson,
drilled a walk-off, solo home run in
the bottom of the seventh inning of
the championship game to give the
Penguins a title-winning 2-1 victory
over the Flames.
Cameron’s tenure
has been splattered with awards and
recognition. In her nine seasons.
She has coached a player of the
year, two newcomers of the year, a
pitcher of the year, three Great
Lakes All-Region picks, 14
all-conference selections and a
championship team.
In 2007, the
Penguins set a school record for
highest average the second straight
season with a .279 batting average.
McKenzie Bedra,
who earned All-Horizon League
First-Team, became the first player
since 1983 to bat at least .400 with
a .416 batting average, which ranks
third on the YSU single-season list.
Also Autumn Grove
became the eighth YSU player since
2003 to earn Horizon League
All-Newcomer Team honors.
In 2006, the
Penguins set the school record for
highest team batting average at .275
and tied the school mark for most
home runs in a season with 33 set in
2003.
Patteson became
the school’s all-time leader in
games played (205) and started
(205), hits (231), doubles (56),
triples (18), runs scored (126),
at-bats (661) and slugging
percentage (.536). She also ranks
second all-time with a career
batting average of .347, third with
11 career home runs and 93 runs
batted in.
Kristen McDonnell
tied the single-season home run mark
as a freshman with 10 round trippers
in 2006 and was named to the Horizon
League All-Newcomer Team and the
Great Lakes All-Region Second-Team.
Pitcher Karlie
Burnell turned in a breakout
campaign with a 16-10 record and
3.30 earned-run average. Burnell, a
second-team all-league pick,
collected all four Penguins
victories in the Horizon League
Championships.
In 2004, Cameron
guided the Penguins to a 29-22
overall record, their second
straight season with at least 25
wins, and set a school record with
10 consecutive victories. Youngstown
State players also received more
individual awards as Patteson was
named first-team All-Horizon League
for the second straight season and
Kelly Murphy garnered second-team
All-Horizon League laurels. Patteson
was also named to the 2004 Canadian
Olympic Development Team in the
summer of 2004 and was named to Team
Canada for the World University
Softball Championships in the fall
of 2004.
Lacey Reichert
became the third player in two
seasons to earn Great Lakes
All-Region Second-Team honors by the
National Fastpitch Coaches
Association.
In 2003,
Youngstown State posted a
school-record 36 victories. In 2002,
the Penguins finished with a 1-13
Horizon League mark and improved to
13-5-1 in 2003, a 12-win improvement
which secured the 2003 Horizon
League Coach-of-the-Year Award for
Cameron.
Besides leading
YSU to its best season in school
history and being named the 2003
Horizon League Coach of the Year,
Cameron’s squad set several team and
individual records.
Youngstown State
set new school standards in wins
(36), consecutive wins (9), runs
scored (220), hits (375), doubles
(73), triples (19), home runs (33),
and runs batted in (196).
The Penguins also
swept the 2003 Horizon League
postseason awards. Along with
Cameron’s postseason honor, Amanda
Berry was named the Player of the
Year, Murphy was tabbed Pitcher of
the Year and Liz Holt garnered the
Newcomer-of-the-Year Award. Berry,
Murphy and Holt were also named
first-team All-Horizon League along
with Patteson. Berry and Murphy were
also 2003 Great Lakes All-Region
Second-Team by the National
Fastpitch Coaches Association.
In 2002, the
Penguins competed in the Horizon
League for the first time, defeated
league-champion Illinois-Chicago and
placed Berry on the All-Horizon
League Second-Team.
Inheriting a
program which won only 11 games
during the 1999 season, Cameron
finished her inaugural season in
2000 with just 16 players on the
roster.
For the 2001
season, Cameron hit the recruiting
trail hard to bolster the talent
level and depth of the program. She
did exactly that when she added nine
new players.
In 2001, Cameron
guided the Penguins to a five-game
improvement- including winning three
times as many league games as the
previous season - playing mostly
freshmen and sophomores. One of
those freshmen, Berry, was named
second-team all-conference after
leading the Penguins with a .284
batting average.
Inheriting a
program which won just 11 games
during the 1999 season, Cameron
finished her inaugural season in
2000 with seven wins with just 16
players on the roster.
Cameron, who
spent three seasons at Saint Francis
(Pa.), including two as an assistant
coach, guided the Red Flash to a
16-28 overall record and a 6-12 mark
in the Northeast Conference in 1999
in her lone season as a head coach.
In 1998, Cameron
helped Saint Francis to a
school-record 33 wins and an
appearance in the Northeast
Conference Softball Championship
Game.
In three years at
Saint Francis, Cameron was helped to
guide the Red Flash to a 69-69-1
overall record.
A native of
Johnstown, Pa., Cameron was a
four-year letterwinner and starting
shortstop at California (Pa.),
earning All-Pennsylvania State
Athletic Conference honors three
times and was an All-Region pick
twice.
Cameron earned
her bachelor’s degree in accounting
from California in 1996 and a
master’s of business administration
from Saint Francis (Pa.) in 1998.