Softball | July 19, 2023

PHILADELPHIA - As part of her introduction to the Penn community on July 18, new head softball coach Christie Novatin was the featured guest on the Penn Athletics podcast. She talked about her journey into coaching, her vision for Penn softball, her priorities during the first month on the job and the impact her coaching mentors have had on her career.

Novatin, a highly-respected coach with championship experience at the University of Connecticut and in the Ivy League, was hired in June and arrived in University City following four years as the Associate Head Coach at UConn, where she helped lead the Huskies to back-to-back regular-season Big East championships for the first time since 1997.

"We are thrilled to hire one of the rising stars in the softball coaching world in Christie Novatin," Alanna Shanahan, the T. Gibbs Kane, Jr. W'69 Director of Athletics and Recreation said. "She was instrumental in UConn's recent turnaround and has won at every stop during her coaching and playing career. Her energy and leadership came through during our competitive national search and her experience in the Ivy League will be beneficial as she takes over at Penn. We can't wait for her to get started."

Novatin began at UConn in 2019, and with head coach Laura Valentino, they turned around a program that had 10 straight losing seasons into one of the top programs in the region. The Huskies compiled a 110-58 record the past four seasons, including an impressive 51-18 mark in the Big East. The past two seasons, UConn was 72-33 (39-9 Big East) and won the 2022 and 2023 Big East regular-season titles.