By DUSTIN NILES
Layout & Design Editor
After a 5-37 record last year and a host of o -the- eld issues, FDU decided it was time for a change at head coach for the softball team. Enter Chris Foye, an assistant coach for NYU last season, and formerly head coach at Felician.
“I’m somewhat local, I live in Verona,” Foye said. “So it’s kind of like a D-I job in my backyard…I’m familiar with the area so softball- wise and from a recruiting standpoint…I have a lot of connections that I thought if this was a job I could get, I could keep more girls local.”
FDU’s strengths were attractive to Foye, and he knew they would be helpful to him in recruiting players in the future.
“It’s a big university, liberal arts, so with the different majors offered, there’s different majors for the recruits, which is good, because sometimes they’re all over the map,” Foye said. “Sometimes specific universities don’t have specific majors, where here it seems like they have a little bit of everything which is good from a recruiting standpoint.”
Foye is focused on recruiting.
“I think with us it’s probably more about like trying to build the program, just because we’re somewhat short on numbers, you know, but doing a great job with what we have here now, and then using those players to kind of build towards the future,” Foye said. “So kind of like next year, you know, building up the roster a little bit. And this will be a good year for them more probably to learn more than anything, learn our style, what we’re looking to do, so that way when we have freshmen come in next year and in the future, they can kind of like take them under their wing and teach them.”
Foye is looking to build a well-rounded team over the next couple of years, not trying to create a team that does just one thing well.
“From a recruiting standpoint, we look more for athletes than anything,” Foye said. “Pitchers and catchers, to us, are more specialty positions, but then after that we’re kind of looking for the typical all-around athlete.
“You know, like good shape, good speed, good arm, good defense, good offense, so kind of like a little but of everything, I would say. Just a good athlete in general,” he said.
Even though the softball team is looking to improve through recruiting in the future, that doesn’t mean that the priority isn’t to win now. Foye said that even though he’s looking to grow and improve the team, the goal to win never goes away.
Foye is also looking to impart skills on his players that extend outside the softball diamond.
“To us, the most important thing is academics first,” Foye said. “In softball, like a majority of other sports, you have to be the top one percent of the best players in the country for professional leagues or like the Olympics…so for us, we look at how softball is going to help them get a job in the future.
“You know, a lot of companies now are hiring athletes because they can deal with time management and they have leadership skills and things like that,” he said.
“It’s not about sport,” Foye said, “it’s about important things that they’re going to use in their life in general.”
