Brianna Hesson enters her second season, and third overall, as an assistant for the Austin Peay softball program in 2022-23, having also been a part of head coach Kassie Stanfill's inaugural coaching staff during the 2018-19 season as a volunteer assistant.
As the team’s hitting coach in 2021-22, the program posted one of its finest campaigns at the plate, posting top-5 single-season marks in eight different categories, including the second-best single-season seasons in program history for batting average (.292), hits (426), and toughest to strikeout (one strikeout per 12.89 at bats).
The team also posted more walks than strikeouts during the season (118 walks, 113 strikeouts), marking the first time since the 1989 season the Govs have accomplished that feat, while also recording 13 triples, the most since the Govs recorded 17 triples during the 1996 season.
Prior to her first stint at APSU, Hesson served one year at Louisville, as a volunteer coach in 2018, following a year on the coaching staff as a fulltime assistant at IUPUI in 2017.
During that season with the Jaguars, she helped coach six All-Summit League selections and a USA Player of the Week selection, while the team also won the Summit League regular season title.
Prior to her time at IUPUI, Hesson served as a graduate assistant at Auburn beginning in 2013, where she served as an on-field assistant and aided with the team’s operations.Â
During her time at Auburn, the Tigers won the program’s first SEC Tournament championship and earned its first ever trip to the Women’s College World Series in 2015.
After completing her collegiate career, Hesson also continued to play softball professionally with the Akron Racers in the National Professional Fastpitch League, from May 2011 until Feb. 2014.
Collegiately, Hesson was a four-year starter for the University of Georgia and helped the Bulldogs to the 2009 Women’s College World Series.
As a sophomore, Hesson earned All-SEC Second Team honors. In her junior season, Hesson was an SEC All-Defensive Team selection and achieved a career-high with 13 home runs.
Her career culminated with National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Region Second Team, All-SEC Second Team, SEC All-Defensive Team honors. Additionally, she was both an SEC Player of the Week and a USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Week during her senior season.
She graduated from Georgia in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts & Sciences degree in Sociology and a master’s degree in education from Auburn in 2015.
Hesson, a native of Sugar Hills, Ga., has also served as a private instructor at the Rome’s Diamond Academy in Rome, Georgia and spent several years as a manager and instructor at the Next Level Baseball and Softball Academy in Buford, Georgia.
