Interview Video
SYLVANIA, Ohio (LourdesAthletics.com) -- Candace Fenton-Bockbrader was named the third head softball coach at Lourdes University ahead of the 2024-25 season. Fenton-Bockbrader, who earned a graduate degree from Lourdes, officially started her coaching duties Monday, Sept. 2, 2024.
"It is my honor and privilege to lead the Gray Wolves and to be able to serve Lourdes University, one of my alma-maters," said Fenton-Bockbrader at the time of her hiring. "I would like to start by thanking athletic director/compliance office JoAnn Gordon, President Bisset, and the Lourdes hiring committee for this amazing opportunity," she finished.
"I have watched Candace's career from afar over the years and I am excited for her to begin her tenure at Lourdes University," said Athletics Director/Compliance Officer, JoAnn Gordon. "Her tireless energy, passion for the game and ability to teach and break down the game of softball will make a tremendous impact," she finished.
Spending the previous two seasons as the head softball coach at her undergraduate alma mater, Bowling Green State University, Fenton-Bockbrader was promoted to head coach on July 14, 2022, after two seasons as an assistant coach with the Falcons.
Her first season as head coach saw Fenton-Bockbrader and her staff rely heavily on a plethora of newcomers, with several returnees sprinkled into the lineup as well. The six-member pitching staff included three first-year Falcons, and the returning hurlers had combined to pitch just 16 percent of the total innings (and only 14% of the innings in MAC play) in the previous season.
In the classroom, a total of eight student-athletes were named to the Academic All-MAC Team in 2023, while five Falcons earned CSC (formerly CoSIDA) Academic All-District accolades.
As a team, BGSU had a 3.523 grade-point average in the Spring 2023 semester. A total of 12 Falcons made the Dean's List in the spring, with no fewer than seven earning a perfect 4.000 GPA that semester.
The 2022 season saw the Falcons finish with a 34-21 (.618) overall record and a 16-11 (.593) MAC ledger, good for fourth place in the 11-team league. BGSU's total of 34 victories was the program's highest in a decade, and the Falcons' overall and league-only winning percentages also were the best since 2012.
The Falcons qualified for the 2022 MAC Tournament and advanced all the way to the championship game. Then, BG participated in national postseason play, heading to Fort Collins, Colo., and winning two games in the National Invitational Softball Championship. The wins, over Stephen F. Austin and George Washington, were the first national postseason victories in BGSU softball history.
BGSU ended the 2021 season – Fenton's first on the staff – with an overall record of 27-27, and the Falcons went 19-20 in MAC action. BG, picked to finish eighth in the MAC in the preseason coaches' poll, ended the season in fifth place in the 11-team league. BGSU was one of two conference teams to finish as many as three places higher than predicted.
The Falcons finished with the program's highest winning percentage in MAC play since 2012, and BGSU's overall total of 27 wins was the highest since the 2013 campaign. Both of those numbers were then surpassed by the 2022 team.
In those two years as an assistant, Fenton-Bockbrader helped the Falcons to two of the most successful seasons in the last decade. The Falcons went 61-48 overall (.560) and 35-31 (.530) in the MAC in that time.
Fenton-Bockbrader joined the Falcons' staff after spending three years with Total Sports in Rossford. She performed many duties with that organization, including serving as Total Softball Director and coaching the Finesse-Fenton Regional Showcase Team. Fenton-Bockbrader worked in all areas of administration, served as tournament director and as a private instructor, and also mentored college-bound student-athletes.
Fenton-Bockbrader spent six years (2011-17) as a high-school special education intervention specialist at Elmwood Local Schools, where she also was assistant athletic director and an assistant softball coach. She also served as a special education intervention specialist at Springfield High School (2007-11), where she was the junior varsity softball head coach and varsity assistant coach.
A Falcon softball alum, she started 24 games at first base in the 2003 season. She was in the lineup for all but four of the first 28 games that spring, before missing the final month of the season due to injury. She hit .232 from 2001-03, and had a .995 fielding percentage in that '03 campaign, making just one error in 186 total chances.
Fenton-Bockbrader earned her Bachelor of Science degree in education at BGSU in 2005, as a mild/moderate intervention specialist. She graduated cum laude with a 3.67 grade-point average and was named to the Dean's List in every semester.
Fenton-Bockbrader earned a Master's degree in reading education from Lourdes University in 2010, where she had a perfect 4.00 cumulative GPA.
