Jodie Holava
Head Coach
Mount Union, 2001

Jodie Holava enters her third season as head coach of the Defiance College Yellow Jacket Softball team.

The Jackets have compiled a 52-34 record during Holava's tenure at DC, including a 23-6 mark in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. In 2006 she guided Defiance to a school-record 29 wins and berth in the NCAA tournamet. Last season Holava led DC to its first HCAC regular season title in school history. She currently has the highest career winning percentage (.605) in Defiance College history.

Holava came to DC after spending the 2004-2005 season at Notre Dame College of Ohio as an assistant softball coach. With her help, the Falcons finished the season 23-17, the best record in school history. They finished 10-4 in the American Mideast Conference and reached the Region IX Tournament for the first time.

Under her tutelage, the Falcons had one player named AMC Freshman of the Year and four other players named to the All-Conference team. In addition, Holava also worked as an assistant athletic trainer and taught an introductory course in Sports Sociology at Notre Dame College.

Before her tenure as an assistant coach, Holava spent two years as a Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer with the Cleveland Clinic while working on her Master’s Degree in Exercise Science at Cleveland State University. She discussed the research of her thesis on the susceptibility to injury of female windmill softball pitchers to local physicians and physical trainers.

In the fall of 2001, Holava spent a year as an Athletic Trainer and the Head Softball Coach at Indian Creek High School in Wintersville, Ohio.

During the summers between 2001 and 2004, Holava coached the Northcoast Spirit, a traveling softball team sanctioned by the National Softball Association. She coached three different age groups, 14 and under, 16 and under, and 18 and under. The Spirit went to the NSA World Series each year with Holava as their coach, and two of her players in the 18 and under age group are now playing softball at the collegiate level.

Holava earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Mount Union College in Athletic Training, with a minor in Health and Secondary Education. A four-year starter for the Raiders, she was a two-time First Team All-Ohio Athletic Conference honoree and twice named to the All-Central Region First Team. The team went to the conference championship in 1998 and reached the Regionals three out of the four years that Holava was there.

Holava resides in Defiance with her two dogs, Petey and Zoe, and her cat, Denise.

Office Phone: (419) 783-2379

E-mail: jholava@defiance.edu

Amanda Hayman is in her second season as an assistant coach on the DC Softball Team.

A 2006 graduate of Northwood University, Hayman was a two-sport athlete, having played volleyball in her senior year in addition to four years of softball. As a second baseman for the Timberwolves, she was captain of the softball team in her junior and senior years, with the team winning the conference in her junior year.

Hayman gained all-GLIAC honorable mention honors in each of those two seasons and also in her senior year for volleyball.

In addition, she was also an academic all-conference honorable mention in volleyball. Hayman holds the distinction as the only athlete in Northwood history to earn all-conference honors in two sports.

A Port Huron, Michigan native, Hayman graduated Marysville High School, lettering in basketball, volleyball, and softball. She earned all-conference in volleyball and softball, and her volleyball team won two state championships during her tenure.

Hayman is enrolled in the Master of Arts and Education program in DC and currently resides in Defiance.

Office Phone: (419) 783-2446
E-mail: ahayman@defiance.edu

Sara Wlasiuk begins her first year as a student assistant for Defiance College Softball team.

Wlasiuk is a senior at Defiance College and has spent the two seasons as a member of the DC Softball squad.

Named Valedictorian of her graduating class at Lakeview High School, Wlasuik participated in both basketball and softball. At LHS she earned 1st Team All County, 1st Team All District, and 1st Team MAC Blue Conference honors.

Wlasiuk is the daughter of Dennis and Karen Wlasiuk and is a double major in Criminal Justice and Psychology.