Deerfield Welcomes New Head Coach to Varsity Girls’ Softball Team

COURTESY OF DEERFIELD COMMUNICATIONS

This summer, Assistant Softball Coach Becca Melvoin worked with the Director of Athletics and the Co-Curricular Program Bob Howe to bring in a new head coach with club-level experience. The change was intended to better match the level of competition the team faces. Dr. Melvoin said, “I absolutely love coaching this team, but someone who had coached club softball was going to be a better fit because we are playing against a lot of teams who have that resource. So it was only fair to the players that we had a coach that could do that for the team.”

Head Coach Bryon Fuller joined Deerfield this spring as the Softball Varsity Head Coach, and with him and the athletes, the team has become “more confident” as captain Vic’Kaysha Rivera ’26 said. “Because we’re confident, we’re playing so much better. We know we’re a team that can win,” she added, comparing their current record of 3-5 to the records from previous years, which were: 2-8 and 3-10 in 2024-25 and 2023-24 respectively.

Rivera, as a four-year senior on the team, also emphasized that, apart from the record itself, “watching [the team] play, we could see we have so much more grit and willingness to compete. We’re not beating ourselves down anymore.” 

One of the factors that contributed to the team’s strength this year was the coaching and practice structure provided by Coach Fuller. Dr. Melvoin said he has helped the team with “a lot of hitting drills and is willing to play small ball and try new things. He’s pretty aggressive on the base path.” Rivera said that practices now seem to have a singular focus. Instead of rushing different focuses and aspects of the sport into one day, now they “dedicate a day to fielding [vs. hitting, defense vs. offense].” Coach Bryon has also been creating a good balance between “fun and structure” as well as helping the new athletes while going harder on the more experienced recruits according to Nicole Lefavour ’27.

In past years, the softball team witnessed a distinct gap between experienced and less experienced athletes trying out the sport for the first time. Lefavour felt that over the years, that gap has lessened and that this year the team has “progressed a lot … even the people with not as much experience, [we’re] trying to help them up and it’s easier to help them with the new coach and there being less of them.”

Student leadership has also impacted the growth of the softball program at the Academy. Dr. Melvoin said that part of the new confidence comes from the student leaders on the team like captain Maggie Garbarino ’27 and Lauren Mrowka ’27. “Those two, they know the game, they played the game at such a high level, that when they offer tips, it helps other players, players are listening.”

One memorable moment from the season that several members of the team pointed out was the match against Choate Rosemary Hall on April 11, 2026. In this match, Choate started with a 5-0 lead. But Deerfield “kept chipping away,” according to Dr. Melvoin, tying at the top of the seventh inning. Though Deerfield lost this match 6-7, their play led the opponent’s coach to compliment the team. Dr. Melvoin said, "Even one of their assistant coaches said that ‘You played with way more heart than our team did. In some ways you deserve to win this game. Your team acts like a team, and it’s clear they love each other and they play like they do.’” Lefavour said that this game “was one of the most fun games that we watched and we really came together as a team.”

Another factor contributing to the team’s growing strength is the team culture that they are cultivating. The team had a trip to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida with the baseball team before the start of the season. This was the first time the softball team trained in this facility. There, they were able to foster relationships and, for newer athletes, learn more about softball. Rivera said, “We really established a bond right there on the trip. I could tell it was going to be a family.”

Deandre Ortiz, the second assistant coach for softball, emphasized the growth of the team. Dr. Melvoin said, “The fact that everyone’s coming back next year just makes it so they’re even stronger.” In fact, the team will only lose one senior this year. 

As the only graduating senior, Rivera said, “It’s amazing to see how much we’ve grown, especially I can see over four years. It’s really rewarding to have a group of girls that love the sport as much as I do.” Joining softball was a new experience for her and she’s learned to love “that team spirit” and “being a part of something bigger than [herself],”.

Dr. Melvoin wants the community to know that the team is better than what their records show. “Even though we’re three and four. We are not a sleeper team, we’re there, we’ve got real players. [I want to tell people] not to look past us,” she said.