Plymouth State University

Bruce Addison starts his 19th season as head coach of the Plymouth State softball program in 2021-22. The Panthers have been solid contenders in New England and the Little East Conference under Addison, hosting the LEC Tournament as the top seed in 2017 and 2018 while earning three ECAC post-season berths from 2008-12 during some of the most successful seasons in school history.
 
Addison enters the year as the winningest coach across all sports in the history of Plymouth State with a 320-321-1 mark. He captured his 100th career win in 2009, his 200th career victory in 2015 and number 300 in the team's season opening victory in 2020. His 2018 squad posted a 26-15 overall record, the second-most wins in program history, while he also led the team to records of 25-15 in 2008 and 24-18 in 2009.
 
Addision enjoyed an impressive three-year run from 2017-19 when his teams combined for a 71-50-1 mark, including a 30-14 record in LEC play. The Panthers earned a share of the regular season title in 2017, before capturing the program's first outright regular season title the following spring. PSU advanced to the championship game of the LEC Tournament in both seasons, falling just short of the title. The 2019 squad nearly earned a three-peat, missing out on the regular season title by one game on the final day of the regular season. As the No. 2 seed for the tournament, PSU was knocked by by eventual champion Eastern Connecticut, 1-0, in the semifinal round.
 
The 2018 team captured numerous LEC postseason awards, as Addison collected Coach of the Year honors for the second straight season (and third overall). The team also boasted the conference's Player of the Year, the first in program history, and Pitcher of the Year to go along with a record four All-LEC First Team selections. Junior utility player Ashley Deyo and sophomore pitcher Caitlyn Miller were also recognized by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFPA) with All-Northeast Region Third Team honors.
 
A year earlier the Panthers went 23-17-1 and 8-6 in the LEC to finish in a four-way tie for the conference’s top spot. PSU won the tiebreaker to host the tournament for the first time in school history. The Panthers advanced through the winner’s bracket to the title game, before falling twice on the final day to finish as tournament runner-up. Addison was selected as the conference’s Coach of the Year.
 
Addison was also named LEC Co-Coach of the Year in 2012 after leading the Panthers, picked sixth in the preseason poll, into a tie for fourth, its highest finish in nine years. PSU went on a late-season tear, winning 16 of its final 24 games. Plymouth State earned a spot in the ECAC New England Tournament for the third time in five years.
 
Addison came to Plymouth State in 2004 after serving six years as head coach at Bow (N.H.) High School. He led the Falcons to a 77-37 record in six seasons, qualifying for the NHIAA playoffs all six years. He was also an assistant coach for one season each at Merrimack Valley High School in Penacook, N.H., and Hopkinton (N.H.) High School.
 
Addison has coached a variety of Amateur Softball Association (ASA) squads, including the New Hampshire Comets 16U, 12U and 14U Junior Olympic Teams. He has worked several softball coaching clinics, and was also an accomplished men’s major modified softball player, earning All-America honors from 1994-96.