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Cindy Cohen hardly needed any more milestones to stamp herself as one of the nation’s premiere softball coaches, but she reached one anyway in 1998 by becoming one of just 24 active Division I coaches to record 500 career victories. Cohen enters her 17th season as Tigers head coach with a 513-225-3 record. She is 24th among active coaches in victories, and her .694 winning percentage is 12th highest among all-time NCAA Division I coaches with 10 or more years in coaching, and 12th highest among active Division I coaches. The historic 500th win came April 11 at Penn, when Princeton took a 6-0 second-game victory to sweep a doubleheader from the Quakers. Despite a 30-16 mark and second-place Ivy League finish in 1998, which is outstanding for some coaches but average by Cohen's standards, the Tigers maintained a standard of excellence by never finishing below second place during Cohen’s tenure. During that time Princeton softball has produced 83 first-team All-Ivy League selections, 48 regional All-Americans, 12 national Academic All-Americans and a Rhodes scholar. A 1978 graduate of Temple University, Cohen has brought the Princeton softball program from obscurity to national prominence, leading the Tigers to 12 Ivy League titles—-including a run of seven straight between 1983-89, and four second-place finishes. Princeton has a league record of 121-18-1 (.864) under Cohen. In 1996 Cohen led the Tigers to their second consecutive NCAA Women’s College World Series appearance in Columbus, GA. Princeton set the then NCAA Division I record for consecutive wins (37) during the season before losing to top-ranked Washington and Southwestern Louisiana at the World Series. After the season Cohen was named NSCA/Speedline Northeast Regional Coach of the Year for the third straight year and fourth time in nine years. In 1988 she led Princeton to 44 victories, then the most by any athletic team in school history. Cohen subsequently was honored by her fellow coaches as the 1988 Regional Coach of the Year. In 1994 Cohen’s Tigers accumulated 42 wins, and again she was honored as the region’s top coach. In 1995 Cohen won that award for the second straight season after her team won a school-record 49 games. Princeton set school records in every offensive category except homeruns and became the first Ivy League team to reach the Women’s College World Series. Princeton has been ranked among the top teams in the Northeast-—out of a possible 58 schools—-in 10 of the past 11 years, including No. 1 rankings in 1996 and 1995. The Tigers were No. 2 in 1994, No. 3 in 1988 and 1993, and No. 5 in 1991, 1992 and 1998. Princeton finished 1996 with a No. 12 ranking in the NSCA/USA Today Top 25 poll. The 1994 Tigers became the first Ivy League team ever to reach and win a game at the NCAA tournament. Princeton also participated in the National Invitational Tournaments in 1987, 1992 and 1993, finishing second in 1992. Cohen began coaching as an assistant at Trenton State (now known as The College of New Jersey), where she helped the Lions place second, fourth and second nationally in Division III during her three years. A scholarship athlete while an undergraduate at Temple, Cohen received her master’s degree in health education at Trenton State. She is director of the highly acclaimed Princeton Softball Camp, now in its 17th year. |
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Entering her eighth season at Princeton, Dina DeAquino now has the longest tenure of any assistant coach during the 17-year regime of Cindy Cohen. Several of the program’s best batteries have played during the 1990s, and Cohen is quick to attribute that success to DeAquino, who works primarily with pitchers and catchers. A 1988 graduate of Montclair State, DeAquino became the first softball player ever inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in November 1998. A two-time All-America selection and the all-time victories leader at the college (73-29), DeAquino owns 13 Red Hawk records, including the lowest single-season earned run average (0.80) in 1987. Cohen on DeAquino: “Dina has consistently made our batteries better. If our staff is willing to work hard and they want to improve, I’m confident Dina can make that happen. We’re fortunate to have her.” |
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After a standout college career at Iowa, including an assistant coaching stint for the nationally ranked Hawkeyes in 1996, Melissa Wielandt enters her second season as a valuable member of the Princeton staff. A first-team All-Big Ten honoree as a third baseman her senior year, and an Academic All-Big Ten selection as a junior, Wielandt will work primarily with the Tigers speedy outfield corps this season. Cohen on Wielandt: “I am looking for the enthusiasm Melissa showed as a player to be evident now that she has a year of coaching under her belt. Melissa knows the game and loves it and that is contagious!” |
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