Gino Olivieri enters his fourth season as Coppin State University's head softball coach for the 2019 season.

The 2017 Coppin State softball team made it to the MEAC Softball Tournament after a two year hiatus. Cayla Brown, Cloe' Ochoa and Patricia Soria were named to the All-MEAC Softball Team while seven were named to the All-MEAC Softball Academic Team.

In his first season as the Eagles head coach Olivieri coached the NCAA Division I batting average leader, former Coppin State short stop Danielle Smith. The Coppin State shortstop was crowned the NCAA Division I statistical champion with a .505 batting average. Smith also led the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in slugging percentage (.798) and on base percentage (.566) while ranking second in the MEAC in total bases (87) and in doubles (12). She was third in triples (4) and seventh in stolen bases (17) amongst the MEAC.

At Alfred University, he was one of the most successful coaches in the nation. In 10 seasons at Alfred, Olivieri won 257 games, which represented an AU career record. This past season, Olivieri guided Alfred to a school-record 40 victories and its first appearance in program history to the NCAA Division III World Series in Salem, Virginia.
 
Alfred finished the year ranked ninth in the final National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III rankings. It marked the highest spot AU had ever been in the NFCA poll; the only other time Alfred finished the year ranked was 2010, when the Saxons were 25th in the final NFCA poll.
 
Alfred also ranked among the top five in the nation in hitting, slugging, scoring and fielding. AU led the nation in fielding in early April with a .981 mark. The Saxons finished year ranked sixth nationally in slugging (.552) and eighth in win-loss percentage (.851).
 
Olivieri was named the Empire 8 Conference Coach of the Year in 2015, the third time he has earned that distinction. He was also named the conference's top coach in 2010 and 2008. Olivieri was named 2010 ECAC Upstate Coach of the Year.
 
“My philosophy is to build team chemistry by creating a family atmosphere among my players,” Olivieri said. “I have also stressed the importance of working hard in the classroom,” Olivieri said. “The lessons my players have learned during their careers – commitment to the team and hard work in practice – along with making academics their greatest priority, has prepared them well for life after college .”

Throughout his career, Olivieri has coached three Empire 8 Players of the Year (Karen Folts in 2009, Nicole Hedrick in 2010 and Liz Thompson in 2015); an Empire 8 Rookie of the Year (Emily Fenton, 2010); 58 all-conference players; 24 All-Region players; seven first team ECAC Upstate all-stars; three NFCA All-American (Nicole Hedrick, Second Team 2010; Liz Thompson and Alison Wickwire, Second Team 2015); 20 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-American Scholar Athletes; and two CoSIDA Academic All-Region honorees (Folts, 2009; Dana Torchia, 2015).
 
During Olivieri’s tenure in Alfred, more than 40 individual school records have been set. Between 2007 and 2009, Olivieri’s teams were ranked in the NCAA regional rankings each year and in 2009 reached third in the NCAA’s Northeast Region’s rankings. In 2010, and again in 2015, Alfred attained the top spot in the Northeast Region rankings.


He took a Saxons team that routinely finished near the bottom of the Empire 8 standings and developed them into one of the top squads in the conference, attaining regional and national prominence.
 
The Saxons have ranked among the top 25 in the nation, out of nearly 400 teams, in several team offensive and defensive categories. In 2009, the team led the country in slugging percentage (.605) and ranked third in team batting average (.387), homeruns per game (1.18) and runs scored per game (8.5). In 2014, AU led the nation in team hitting in late April before finishing 26th (.346).

Olivieri earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice with a minor in political science in 1981 from the University of Delaware, where he was a three-year starting tailback for the football team, helping the Blue Hens to an NCAA national championship in 1979. He was a member of the Detroit Lions for two seasons (1981 and 1982) before retiring in 1982 due to a shoulder injury. Olivieri served 20 years in the Monroe County Sheriff's Department as a canine handler, retiring in 2002.

He and his wife, Janet,  call Sparta, NY home, and have three children: Frank, Gina, and Michelle. His daughters both played Division I collegiate softball - Gina at University of Maryland-Baltimore County and Michelle at Binghamton University. Their son, Frank, played baseball at Ithaca College.
 
Coach Olivieri currently resides in Manchester, MD.