Laura Dukes, who enjoyed an outstanding college softball career at both Middle Tennessee (2012-14) and Lipscomb University (2015), has joined the staff of Shane Showalter and will work with all facets of the program, primarily with the outfielder and game-day operations.
It is Dukes' first full-time college coaching position, but not her first coaching endeavor, having served as graduate-assistant manager for Lipscomb during the 2015-16 school year.
During her tenure as a graduate assistant, Dukes was involved with the Bison daily practice planning, scouting reports, travel plans, game-day operations, academic meetings with players and other day-to-day duties.
She also has worked as assistant coach for the Tennessee Fury Platinum 18U and 16U teams (2013-16), with those teams having several top-5 tournament finishes, including winning the Atlanta Legacy Showcase (16U) and a runner-up finish in the Super 48 Bracket of the 16U Colorado Fireworks Tournament.
During her tenure with the Fury, Dukes had players commit, or are currently playing, for Tennessee, Washington, Georgia Tech, Lipscomb, Kennesaw State, Chattanooga, Southern Illinois, Western Kentucky, Tennessee Tech and East Tennessee as well as several other smaller colleges and universities.
During her season at Lipscomb, Dukes was an Atlantic Sun Conference All-Academic Team and President’s Scholar pick, as well as a National Fastpitch Coach Association All-American Scholar Athlete – while finishing the 2015 season batting .296, with .444 slugging and .512 on-base percentages.
At MSTU, was a Conference USA first-team pick as a junior after batting .362, with 55 hits, 17 doubles and 33 RBIs. She also set a program single-season record with 34 walks. She also was a College Sports Madness Preseason All-Conference selection, and Tennessee Sports Writers Association Softball Player of the Week for the week of March 17-23.
Dukes was a 2014 CoSIDA Academic All-District first-team pick, Conference USA Academic Medal winner, President’s Scholar and All-Academic Team selections.
As a sophomore, Dukes led the team with a .281 batting average, seven home runs and a .477 slugging percentage, in 51starts.
Dukes prepped at Jefferson County High School (Dandridge, Tenn.), where she was a three-time All-Northeast Tennessee selection, four-time all-conference and three-time all-district tournament choice.
Dukes earned a bachelor's degree in Organizational Communication from MTSU in 2014 and a master's in Conflict Management from Lipscomb in 2016.
