Viera, FL- The USSSA Pride is happy to announce that coaches Roman Foore, Penny Foore and Stephanie Ceo will all return for the 2021 season.
Head Coach Roman Foore,who joined the staff before the 2020 season, will enter his second season as head coach of the Pride. Assistant coaches Penny Foore and Stephanie Ceo will return for their second and third seasons as assistant coaches, respectively.
Roman and Penny Foore both came over to the Pride prior to the 2020 season after coaching at Bethel University for six seasons. With Penny Foore as the head coach and Roman Foore as an assistant coach, Bethel University saw tremendous success with the team capturing its first MIAC title in 2015 as well as a .522 winning percentage over that span.
Assistant coach Stephanie Ceo will return for her third season as the Pride’s assistant coach. As a four year starter at second base for the Texas Longhorns, she finished with a career batting average of .332. Outside of USSSA, Ceo is an assistant coach with Embry-Riddle.
Returning with the same staff and having familiarity with the assistant coaches is a luxury Roman Foore doesn’t take for granted. “It’s awesome…to walk in and know who they [the rest of the staff] are already instead of trying to figure it out and get to know them and their personalities,” he explained. “Familiarity is key at this level, so just to have that consistency day in and day out is great.”
After the 2020 season came to an unexpected end, Coach Roman Foore and his staff are looking to hit the ground running and pick up where they left off. However, with softball making its return to the Olympics this summer, the Pride will have to navigate this season without some of their players. When asked about the challenges that might bring this upcoming season, Coach Foore added, “It will be an interesting challenge yet exciting… You can’t fault them for taking the opportunity cause what better [opportunity] can you have in the game of softball than to represent your country. So, it’s challenging but we’ll make do.”
The Pride start their 2021 season on May 28 against Team Canada.