The all-time winningest coach in UND softball history, head coach Tracy Marback enters her sixth season at the helm of the Fighting Sioux.
Marback, who enters the season with a 92-151 record at UND, became the program's winningest coach with a 3-1 win over Bentley on March 13 at the Gene Cusic Classic in Florida.
Marback guided the Sioux to a 17-25 overall record in 2006, including a pair of wins at the North Central Conference Tournament. Senior pitcher Tara Petersen and freshman outfielder Casie Hanson captured all-conference honors, with Hanson being named NCC Freshman of the Year. A total of six Fighting Sioux have garnered All-NCC accolades under the tutelage of Marback.
In the classroom, UND had two players - Melissa Champion and Tara Petersen - named to the Academic All-NCC Team, and the two of them were joined by teammate Carrie Oswald on the NCC Commissioner's Academic Honor Roll.
In 2005 Marback guided the Fighting Sioux to their first 20-win season since 2002 and just the seventh in the 29-year history of the program. UND’s four North Central Conference wins were its most in league play since winning nine in 1987. Additionally, three players earned All-NCC honors in 2005, a first in UND softball history.
Marback was hired as the 12th coach in UND softball history prior to the 2002 season, after one year as head coach at Quincy (Ill.) University. Marback’s hiring returned her to the program where she had served as an assistant coach from 1998 to 2000 under Paula Sondreal. Prior to her first stint at UND, Marback served as a student-assistant coach at her alma mater, Minnesota State, Moorhead.
Marback was a four-year letterwinner with the Dragons, for whom she started for two years at third base. A two-year captain, Marback was a two-time all-conference selection and set an MSU, Moorhead record for doubles in a season.
Marback graduated from MSU, Moorhead in 1997 with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science. In 2000 she received her master’s degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in sport psychology and a cognate in education administration from UND.
