Courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics
OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss softball head coach Mike Smith rounded out his coaching staff Tuesday by naming Sharon Palma as the team’s assistant coach and pitching coach. The former professional pitcher of the Carolina Diamonds in the National Pro Fastpitch League, was an assistant coach at Florida International for the 2014 season.
“Sharon is going to bring big-time experience,” Smith said. “She pitched professionally and had a great, storied career at Wright State. She’s been coaching now for three years at the Division I level. She’s a great motivator, a great developer and a great teacher. Where we are right now in our program, starting fresh, we need somebody to be able to come in and give us all three of those. She has great relationships with her players. She’s a go-getter, very organized, and wants to be successful. She’s going to do a tremendous job. The nice thing is, both Jake Schumann and her worked together for a year at Florida International, so that transition is going to be a lot easier.”
In her lone year at FIU, the Panthers went 33-20 and 15-9 in Conference USA. FIU’s two starting pitchers posted a 2.90 ERA, and junior right-hander Shelby Graves threw her first career no-hitter en route to earning Conference USA Pitcher of the Week honors.
Palma came to FIU after spending the 2013 season on the IUPUI staff where she was the Jaguars’ pitching coach. There, she was responsible for pitchers and catchers, recruiting and fundraising.
Palma spent the 2012 season at Michigan State where she served as the volunteer assistant for the Spartans. As the volunteer coach for MSU, Palma primarily worked with the pitchers and catchers.
Palma was a three-year letterwinner for Wright State from 2008-10 and helped the Raiders to Horizon League tournament titles in 2008 and 2010. She was named the 2008 Horizon League Tournament MVP and earned a spot on the 2009 All-Horizon League second team, the 2008 All-Horizon League newcomer team and the 2008 Horizon League All-Tournament team.
In the Raider record books, Palma is currently in third-place for pitching appearances (120), pitching starts (93) and player wins (46). She is also fourth all-time for innings pitched (504.0) and career strikeouts (360), and 10th all-time with four shutouts. Palma’s 19 wins during the 2009 season is tied for first for the most wins in a single season.
After graduation, Palma played for the Akron Racers and in the summer of 2012 she played for the Carolina Diamonds of the National Pro Fastpitch league.
A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Palma graduated from Wright State University with a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education.
