LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) is honored to announce Notre Dame head coach Deanna Gumpf is the recipient of its inaugural Donna Newberry “Perseverance” Award.

 

The award, named for the longtime Muskingum College and 2008 NFCA Hall of Fame coach who died in November 2010 after amassing a 906-419-1 mark over 36 seasons, recognizes an NFCA member coach who has demonstrated extraordinary strength of will and character in the fight to overcome a physical, mental or social adversity that presented an additional challenge to the already demanding job of a coach.

Gumpf, who recently started her 14th year leading the Fighting Irish, has compiled a 549-220-1 record in South Bend, which includes 13 straight NCAA tournament appearances and four Big East titles.

The last few years have been difficult for Gumpf, but not because of anything on the softball field. In the summer of 2010, her four-year-old daughter Tatum was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

In their nomination essay, Notre Dame associate coaches Kris Ganeff and Lizzy Lemire said that the average person would never know that Gumpf was building a perennial softball power at the same time she was fighting to save her daughter’s life. Despite a vow to be at every one of Tatum’s doctor appointments or treatments, Gumpf somehow also managed to be at 99 percent of the team’s practices, every game and continue to be involved in the lives of her players during a very challenging two and a half years personally.

Each season since 2011, Notre Dame has hosted a Strikeout Cancer weekend, which to date has raised over $105,000 to benefit South Bend’s Memorial Children’s Hospital — where Tatum started her treatments — and children throughout the state of Indiana who are battling cancer. The Irish are annually among the leaders in raising funds for the NFCA’s StrikeOut Cancer initiative.

Now eight years old and in the third grade, Tatum has reached her second year of remission and is back to being the healthy and upbeat kid she was prior to her diagnosis.

To see Notre Dame’s feature on the Gumpf family’s leukemia battle, click HERE

Newberry, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA Division III history when she left the game, transitioned the Muskies from a slowpitch team to a perennial fastpitch national contender. She helped guide Muskingum to 17 conference championships, 18 NCAA regional appearances, eight national championship appearances and the 2001 Division III national championship.

Newberry was the only Division III coach to be named national coach of the year in two sports — softball and basketball. As Muskingum’s women’s basketball coach, Newberry earned 403 victories and three conference championships. Her 1991 team finished as the national runner-up, falling to St. Thomas in the Division III title game. Over her distinguished career, she also served as an instructor, coach of field hockey and volleyball, women’s athletics director and assistant athletics director.

While undergoing chemotherapy treatments for her third bout with breast cancer in 2010, Newberry led the Muskies to the Ohio Athletic Conference tournament for the 25th consecutive time. In the months before her death, Muskingum dedicated its softball field in her honor, renaming it the Donna J. Newberry Softball Field and Newberry finished a book about her coaching career and experiences — “You Must Play to Win: A Coach’s Journey from the Pit to the Pinnacle.”