July 21, 2004
The University of Notre Dame softball team welcomes back all alumni for the 2004 Melissa Cook Alumni Game on Friday, Oct. 8. The 2005 Notre Dame softball team will suit up against the alumni after the pep rally on Friday (approximately 7 – 7:30 p.m.) at Ivy Field. Alumni interested in attending the weekend, whether playing in the contest or just to get back together with your former teammates, should contact assistant coach Kris Ganeff at (574) 631-9125. You can also e-mail Coach Ganeff at: McCleary.1@nd.edu. Coach Ganeff asks all those interested to contact her before August 15. She can take care of ticket requests for the Notre Dame – Stanford football game to those softball alumni returning for the weekend. The game will be played in honor of former Irish player Melissa Cook, a 1993 graduate and monogram winner for the softball team in 1992. Melissa died tragically March 9, 2002, when construction scaffolding fell from the John Hancock Building in Chicago, Ill., and struck her car. Cook is the first former Notre Dame softball player to pass away since the program began in 1989. Melissa will always be remembered at Ivy Field, as head coach Deanna Gumpf, the 2002-03 Irish team and Cook’s family dedicated a bench to the former second baseman and shortstop during the team’s Alumni Game in the fall of 2002.