Mike Giannamore Named Assistant Coach

MACON, Ga. – A little more than a month after taking the full reins of the Mercer softball program, head coach Stephanie DeFeo's staff is complete. The final piece of the puzzle was finalized Tuesday afternoon as Mike Giannamore was announced as an assistant coach by DeFeo.

A native of Steubenville, Ohio, Giannamore most recently served as an assistant coach at Salem International University in Salem, West Virginia, from 2014-16. Prior to his stint at Salem, he was an assistant coach at Ohio Valley University (2009-14) in Vienna, West Virginia. Under Giannamore's leadership, both programs set single-season wins records – OVU winning 26 games in 2011-12 for its first winning season and Salem capturing 23 wins this past spring. Giannamore helped coach 20 all-conference players at OVU and five during his short time at Salem.

"Mike can work with many different facets of the game, including pitching and catching, which will help us be successful this year and moving forward," DeFeo said of Giannamore's hire. "He has great energy on the field and I completely believe in his ability to help raise the potential of our team. Mike is the complete package and I'm excited to have him on board."

A former collegiate baseball player, Giannamore started his career at Wheeling Jesuit before transferring to OVU for his final three seasons of eligibility. He earned undergraduate degrees in health and wellness and coaching from OVU in 2009 and 2010 before completing his master's in business administration at Salem in 2013.

"I'm excited to be at Mercer and working with a great staff headed by Stephanie DeFeo," Giannamore said. "I've known about the Bears since high school because my former baseball coach is a Mercer graduate. This program offers a great team, staff and environment to work with."

DeFeo has also added a new volunteer assistant coach in Kathleen Watson-Otani, rounding out a full four-person staff for the Bears heading into the fall season. A native of Bullhead City, Arizona, Watson-Otani arrives in Macon following a similar path of Giannamore. She was most recently an assistant coach at Salem International and a graduate assistant coach at OVU prior.

Watson-Otani played one season of NCAA Division III softball at California Lutheran in Thousand Oaks, California, as well. She is a former coach for the SoCal Sparks travel team, which she helped lead to a second-place finish at the USSSA Nationals in 2014 alongside head coach and former Olympian Danielle Stewart.

"Having this talented staff gives us the opportunity to have four coaches focused on the entirety of our practices, team concepts and simply ways to get better," DeFeo said. "We all work really well as a whole and our communication is amazing – I'm just really excited about the energy everyone brings."

Mercer kicks off its eight-game fall slate by hosting Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and Anderson College (S.C.) on Saturday, Oct. 1 and Sunday, Oct. 2 at Sikes Field.

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