The Barton College softball team will be under new leadership for the 2023 season.
After six seasons and 123 wins, including the program’s best season since 1994 with a 29-12 finish in 2022, Junior Bailey is departing the Bulldogs. He’s not going far, however, as he’ll take over the head coaching position at NCAA Division II Conference Carolinas foe Chowan.
Barton’s new coach will be Melisa Shock, who spent the past year as an assistant coach, primarily working with pitchers, at Div. I Valparaiso University. From 2019-21, Shock was an associate head coach at Div. II Frostburg State in Maryland.
“It gives me great comfort to know that Melisa Shock will be the leader of our softball team,” said Barton athletic director Todd Wilkinson via a release from Barton. “Coach Shock checked all the boxes in our search. She particularly stood out for her genuine concern for the health and well-being of the students, pitching expertise, organizational skills and passion to be the head coach at Barton College. She is the right person at the right time to continue to lead our softball student-athletes on the upward trajectory they desire. Barton softball is in great hands and the future is bright with coach Shock leading.”
Shock also served as an assistant coach at West Virginia Tech in 2011 and was a graduate assistant at Wheeling Jesuit University in 2010.
She was a three-year pitcher at Wittenburg University, where she graduated in 2010.
“I would like to thank Todd Wilkinson, (Barton Associate AD) Dexter Harris and (Barton Deputy AD) Britney Woodhull-Smith for the opportunity to lead the Barton College softball program,” Shock said in the release. “Throughout my time both playing and coaching softball, I have developed my own coaching philosophy and coaching style focused on a strong team culture, work ethic, sportsmanship and respect.”
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