Casey Dickson is entering her fourth season as the Lady Govs head coach. She is the sixth head softball coach in the 24-year history of the program, after officially being named to the position on July 1, 2008.
The Lady Govs struggled record-wise (12-40) with a young team in 2011, but posted wins against five of the six teams that advanced to the Ohio Valley Conference tournament, including taking two of three games from defending conference regular-season champion Tennessee Martin.
Statistically, the team was ranked in the top 50 in the country in double plays turned, while tying the school single-season team record for home runs (30) and setting a mark for being hit by pitches (30).
Individually, red-shirt sophomore Shelby Norton was ranked 64th in the nation in hit by pitches (11), while also setting the school mark in the same category. Also, sophomore pitcher Morgan Brewer's 43 appearances ranked second most in APSU single-season history, while red-shirt sophomore Jessica Ryan's eight home runs were the sixth best in single-season mark.
In the classroom, four Lady Govs (Catie Cozart, Randal Davenport, Brewer and Ryan) were named All-America Scholar's by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, while the team as a whole was honored by the NFCA for finishing with a 3.102 team grade-point average.
Austin Peay was 16-35 overall in 2010, marking the second straight season the Lady Govs softball team saw improvements in both total wins and winning percentage.
But the biggest improvement for the Austin Peay softball team came in Ohio Valley Conference play where the Lady Govs won eight games -- two more than the total number of conference wins recorded in the previous two seasons combined.
The Lady Govs also had their first OVC Pitcher and Player of the Week winners during Dickson's tenure, with freshman Morgan Brewer earning Pitcher of the Week (April 5) and freshman Shine Huwe named Player of the Week (April 12). It marked the first time since the 2007 season an Austin Peay player, or pitcher had earned the in-season, weekly honor.
The honors didn't end on the field, with sophomore Catie Cozart being named to the CoSIDA academic all-district second team with a 3.36 grade point average in computer science.
The Lady Govs were 15-38 in her first season at the helm, with the 15 wins being the third best win total for a first-year coach in the program's history and the second best since softball was made a conference sponsored sport by the Ohio Valley Conference in 1994.
Highlighting Dickson's first season as coach was a third place finish (out of a 19-team field) at the Georgia Tech Buzz Classic finishing behind only Atlantic Coast Conference member Georgia Tech and Big 10 Conference member Purdue.
Two of her players were also named to all-tournament teams during the 2009 season, with outfielder Samantha Butts earning honors at the Auburn War Eagle Classic and pitcher Abby Mabry at the Buzz Classic.
Dickson came to Austin Peay after spending the previous three seasons at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she posted a won-loss record of 55-68.
In 2007, Dickson helped junior first baseman Courtney Norene earn second-team All-Atlantic 10 Conference honors, finishing the year batting .290 with a conference-leading 10 home runs.
In Dickson's second season the team posted an 18-21 overall record and its first postseason appearance since 2004. She produced Temple's first Atlantic 10 Softball Player of the Year since 1989 in Adrienne Repsher. Temple junior outfielder Brittany Burks was named to the 2007 Atlantic 10 Softball All-Championship team, while Repsher earned All-Mid-Atlantic Region honors.
The team had a .330 batting average, good for second in the A-10. The 2007 Owls faced difficult competition as they battled against national powers, Arizona and Oklahoma.
In her first season at Temple, Dickson guided the Owls to a 22-23 finish overall and a 12-6 conference mark. The Owls' fifth-place finish in the Atlantic 10, following a 4-12 2005 campaign, was a credit to the team's .282 batting average. During the 2006 season the team compiled a nine-game winning streak, the longest since Temple won 11 straight in 2002.
Prior to accepting the head coaching responsibilities at Temple, Dickson served two years as the head softball coach at Frank Phillips College in Borger, Texas. At Frank Phillips, she helped to establish the program which began intercollegiate competition in 2002.
Dickson took over a team that was winless in its inaugural season of competition and guided it to 11 victories in her last year, despite moving from Division III to Division I of the Western Junior Athletic Conference.
Her greatest accomplishment while at Frank Phillips however came off the field of play. Dickson's 2005 team earned a combined 3.62 cumulative GPA and was named the National Junior College Athletic Association All-Academic Team of the Year.
Stints as an assistant coach at NCAA Division I programs such as Tulsa University (1999), Nicholls State University (2000) and Texas-San Antonio (2001) served as the proving ground for Dickson. She also took over the head coaching reins at Nicholls State on an interim basis following the 2000 season, and was the head coach of the 18-and-under Oklahoma City L'il Saints in 2003.
A four-year softball letter winner during her days as a first baseman at Oklahoma, Dickson set single-season school records for home runs (17) and RBI's (61) her senior season in 1997. She ended her four years at OU as one of the school's most prolific offensive players, sitting atop career lists for RBI's (166), home runs (27), total bases (337) and walks (118). The first Oklahoma player to receive All-Midwest Region honors three times (1995-97), the three-time all-conference selection led the Sooners to four straight NCAA Tournaments.
Following her collegiate playing career, Dickson was selected by Tampa Bay in the first Women's Professional Softball League draft. She opted to play with the California Redding Rebels in the Women's Major Softball League (1997).
A 2000 graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor's degree in English Literature, Dickson is currently working on her master's degree through the National Fastpitch Coaches College/Texas Women's University.
