June 5, 2014
CHICAGO – University of Notre Dame softball head coach Deanna Gumpf was one of six honorees of the Alliance of Women Coaches at its “The Bigger Picture of Being a Champion” event on Wednesday night at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O’Hare Hotel. The awards honor legends and leaders in a variety of sports, while recognizing contributions made away from the playing field.
Gumpf was recognized as a 2014 Bigger Picture Award winner alongside Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer, social justice leader Pat Griffin, WNBA all-star Tamika Catchings, Northwestern women’s lacrosse coach Kelly Amonte Hiller and IOC leader Anita DeFrantz. Past award winners also include former Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit, United States soccer Olympian Julie Foudy and Rutgers women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer.
The 2014 awards were presented in conjunction with the Alliance of Women Coaches annual convention, The Huddle, a conference that provides coaches and others in athletics with professional development and networking opportunities.
Under the direction of Gumpf, the Notre Dame softball program has emerged as one of the national leaders in the sport in its dedication to community service causes across greater Indiana, particularly in support of pediatric cancer patients. Irish softball has raised more than $100,000 since 2011 through its Strikeout Cancer initiative that has directly assisted children in the state of Indiana battling pediatric cancer.
The softball program has been honored three times in four years with the Notre Dame Trophy Award, which was established to recognize a University varsity sports program that exhibits excellence in community service throughout the academic year.
Gumpf, whose daughter, Tatum, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2010 but has been in remission since the fall of 2012, will once again participate in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge from Aug. 1-3. The Pan-Mass Challenge raises money for life-saving cancer research and treatment at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through an annual bike-a-thon that crosses the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Since its founding in 1980, the PMC has successfully melded support from committed cyclists, volunteers, corporate sponsors and individual contributors to raise more money for charity than any other event of its kind in the U.S.
For more information on Gumpf’s efforts in this summer’s PMC, or to make a contribution to the charitable cause, visit www.PMC.org.
For the latest news and updates on all things Notre Dame softball, visit www.und.com/softball, follow the Irish @NDsoftball and @NDcoachGumpf on Twitter, and Like the team at Facebook.com/NDSoftball.
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