SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame head softball coach Deanna Gumpf has announced the hiring of Amanda Eberhart as its next associate coach. Eberhart joins the Fighting Irish after serving as the head coach at Valparaiso during the 2021-22 academic year.
“I am extremely excited to welcome Amanda and her family to the University of Notre Dame.” Gumpf said, “Over the past few weeks, we have conducted an extensive search and Amanda has all the qualities we were looking for in an elite offensive coordinator. Amanda has proven herself as one of the top coaches around the country and is an incredible, caring person who truly values the person over the player. Her passion, integrity and hard-work has propelled her career. She has consistently shown the ability to recruit and develop talent and I have no doubt she will continue this trend here at Notre Dame.”
“I’m extremely excited to join the University of Notre Dame.” Eberhart stated, “I want to thank Deanna for this opportunity to be part of this tremendous program. This is a staff that has worked together for years and I’m excited to come in and add to their already immense knowledge. Coach Lizzy Ristano did a phenomenal job with this group offensively, and I’m excited to build on the foundation Lizzy, Deanna and Kris have paved.”
Along with being the head coach at Valparaiso, Eberhart brings eight years of head coaching experience with her to South Bend. Prior to being the Beacon’s head coach, she was the head coach at Omaha from 2019-2021, and spent 2013-2016 as the head coach at IUPUI.
In Omaha, she turned around the Maverick program in just two seasons, improving the team’s win total by 16 games in her first full season. In her first season, the 2020 shorted-year, Omaha went 12-12 and had the program’s best opening-month record since 104. The Mavericks closed the season leading the Summit League in eight offensive categories and ranked 24th nationally in home runs and 36th in slugging percentage. She led Omaha to a second-place finish in the Summit League in 2021, one of the highest regular season finishes in Maverick softball history in the Division I era.
Prior to joining Omaha, Eberhart spent the 2017 and 18 seasons as an assistant coach at Purdue. She coached a pair of All-Big 10 honorees and raised the team batting average by .057 points.
As the head coach at IUPUI, she tallied 95 wins, the third-most in program history in just four seasons. The Jaguars program had not earned a winning season in 15 years before Eberhart led the program to a 24-24 record in just her second season. The following year she set a Division I era program record with a 33-18 mark in 2015. After having not reached the conference tournament in 14 seasons, Eberhart led IUPUI to the Summit League Tournament in each of her final three seasons, and made a run to the tournament championship for the first time in program history in 2016.
In her four years, she coached 12 All-Summit League honorees and three NFCA All-Region honorees. The 2015 squad ranked in the top 50 nationally in doubles, home runs and stolen bases, and set the program’s single-season records for homers, fielding percentage and a pitching record for strikeouts.
Eberhart twice served as the volunteer assistant coach at Northwestern, working in Evanston in 2012 and the 2006-07 seasons. There, she helped the Wildcats win a Big Ten title in 2006, and finished as the Women’s College World Series runner-up in 2006 and was a member of the National Coaching Staff of the Year.
Between her stays in Evanston, Eberhart worked in the ACC as the assistant coach at North Carolina State in 2008, before three seasons at Indiana 2009-11.
Eberhart began her coaching career as a volunteer at her alma mater, UIC during the 2005 season. In her playing career, she was named a Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-American as a senior in 2004, and was also the Horizon League Player of the Year. She was a four-time NFCA All-Region honoree and four-time All-Horizon League performer. She is the UIC program record holder for home runs and is second in Flames history in RBI and walks. She was inducted into the UIC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013.