 Henderson in 2019. | |||||||||||||||
| Current position | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Head coach | ||||||||||||||
| Team | UMass | ||||||||||||||
| Conference | Atlantic 10 | ||||||||||||||
| Biographical details | |||||||||||||||
| Born | (1977-01-29)January 29, 1977 (age 48) Huntington, New York | ||||||||||||||
| Playing career | |||||||||||||||
| 1996–1999 | UMass | ||||||||||||||
| 2004 | Arizona Heat | ||||||||||||||
| 2005–2007 | New England Riptide | ||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Pitcher | ||||||||||||||
| Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |||||||||||||||
| 2000–2003 | UMass (asst.) | ||||||||||||||
| 2011–2012 | Ohio State (asst.) | ||||||||||||||
| 2013 | Stanford (asst.) | ||||||||||||||
| 2014 | UMass (assoc. HC) | ||||||||||||||
| 2015–2021 | UMass Lowell | ||||||||||||||
| 2022–present | UMass | ||||||||||||||
| Head coaching record | |||||||||||||||
| Overall | 118–163 (.420) | ||||||||||||||
| Accomplishments and honors | |||||||||||||||
| Awards | |||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
Danielle Henderson (born January 29, 1977) is an American, former collegiateAll-American, medal-winningOlympian, retired professional All-Starsoftballpitcher who is currently thehead coach atUMass. Henderson was a starting pitcher for theUMass Minutewomen softball from 1996 to 1999. Henderson also played professionally inNational Pro Fastpitch from 2004 to 2007, where she currently ranks top-10 in career strikeout ratio (6.8). Along with numerous school records, she is theAtlantic 10 Conference career leader inERA,shutouts,perfect games (3) andWHIP. Henderson represented theUnited States at the2000 Summer Olympics and won a gold medal.
Born inHuntington, New York, Henderson grew up in nearbyCommack and graduated fromCommack High School in 1995.[1]
In her freshman season of 1996, Henderson led the team in wins, ERA, shutouts and strikeouts.[2][1] Henderson threw her firstno-hitter in theNCAA play-in opener againstMarist Red Foxes.[1]
In 1997 as a sophomore, Henderson would earn her first National Fastpitch Coaches AssociationAll-American andAtlantic 10 Pitcher of Year awards, as well as tossing twono-hitters and breaking theUMass season records for strikeouts,innings pitched and strikeout ratio.[3] Her wins and shutouts were at the time both second best in school history. For the year, Henderson won her first pitchingTriple Crown for the conference best in wins, strikeouts and ERA, while ranked in theNCAA top-10 for both ERA and strikeout ratio.
On April 26, 1997, Henderson struck out a then school and a career best 18Fordham Rams in regulation, this was tied third all-time for anNCAA single game and now is tied fourth overall. The day prior on April 25, Henderson also began a 63 scoreless inning streak that endured until May 17 for a then career best. UMass qualified for the1997 Women's College World Series.[4] However, Henderson was selected to the All-Tournament Team.[5]
Throwing fiveno-hitters (NCAA top-5 season tying record and oneperfect game vs. theFordham Rams on March 29, 1998) earned her all-season honors from conference and the NFCA in her junior season of 1998, moving from third to the second Team.[6] Henderson broke four school records with her wins, strikeouts, shutouts (still the record) and a strikeout ratio of nearly 12; along with her ERA, she won a second conference Triple Crown. In addition, she again cracked the top-10NCAA Division I season records with her strikeouts (led theNCAA), shutouts and then second best all-time season strikeout ratio mark, which also led theNCAA that year.[7]
A return trip to theWomen's College World Series ended by shutout as the Minutewomen lost their second game toOklahoma State Cowgirls and would be Henderson's last appearance in the series.[8]
In her senior season of 1999, Henderson posted sixno-hitters (another top-five tying NCAA season record), twoperfect games and repeated all-season honors, including a First TeamAll-American highlight and her third straightAtlantic 10 Pitcher of The Year and pitching Triple Crown.[9] Henderson won 30 games, struck out a then school and conference record (total led the nation) and tied the best season ERA mark atUMass.[7] She had a career bestWHIP and her strikeout ratio of 13.9, set a newNCAA season mark that is now 6th all-time. Her 105 scoreless innings streak from March 16 − May 2, 1999 remains theNCAA record.
Henderson closed her career atUMass with the best strikeouts, ERA, shutouts, wins, WHIP, innings pitched, strikeout ratio, perfect games and no-hitter numbers, of which she still owns the ERA, WHIP, perfect games and shutout crowns.[10] She holds the same career records for theAtlantic 10.[11] Finally, in theNCAA Henderson is tied 6th in no-hitters (14) and 5th in perfect games (3) all-time for a career.[12]
In May 1999, Henderson was awarded theHonda Sports Award as the best softball player in the country.[13][14]
After her playing career, Henderson served as a private pitching instructor and was an assistant coach withOhio State andStanford. She rejoined her alma mater UMass as associate head coach for the 2014 season and was head coach at UMass Lowell from 2015 to 2021.
Henderson began playing forTeam USA the summer after she graduated in 1999. On July 29, 1999, Henderson threw aperfect game defeatingColombia 9–0 at the start of the Pan American Games.
She competed at the2000 Summer Olympics inSydney where she received a gold medal with the American team.[15] Her only game was a 3–0 win overCuba.[16]
Henderson began playing with the rejuvenatedNational Pro Fastpitch in 2004 with the now defunctArizona Heat. She debuted on June 1, throwing two innings in a loss. Beginning on June 7-July 31, Henderson won a career best 7 consecutive decisions in 12 games, 5 complete. She struck out 55 batters and surrendered 35 hits, 30 walks and 9 earned runs for a 1.05 ERA and 1.08 WHIP. With theNew England Riptide on June 5, 2005, she tallied a career best 13 strikeouts in a 3-0 shutout victory. She currently ranks top-10 in career strikeout ratio at 6.8. In 2005, Henderson made the All-NPF East Team.[17]
Although she did not play, Henderson also won a NPF Cowles Cup Championship with the defunctNew England Riptide on August 28, 2006.[18]
Henderson had two stints as an assistant coach at UMass, first from 2000 to 2003 then as associate head coach in 2014.[19] In between these stints, Henderson worked as a private pitching instructor before returning to college softball as assistant coach atOhio State from 2011 to 2012 andStanford underJohn Rittman in 2013.[19]
On July 30, 2014, she was named head softball coach at theUniversity of Massachusetts Lowell.[19]
In 2001, while serving a second term as Assistant Coach, theUniversity of Massachusetts-Amherst ceremoniously retired Henderson's #44 jersey.[20] In her last season with her the Minutewomen, Henderson was also inducted into the New England Women's Hall of Fame on September 24, 2002.[21]
On October 9, 2009, Henderson was honored with an invitation into theUMass Hall of Fame.[22]
| YEAR | W | L | GP | GS | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP |
| 1996 | 23 | 8 | 33 | 30 | 24 | 11 | 0 | 197.2 | 124 | 56 | 27 | 76 | 113 | 0.96 | 1.01 |
| 1997 | 25 | 15 | 49 | 37 | 35 | 15 | 3 | 272.0 | 147 | 60 | 31 | 62 | 335 | 0.80 | 0.77 |
| 1998 | 30 | 8 | 42 | 35 | 33 | 23 | 2 | 256.0 | 112 | 38 | 26 | 84 | 430 | 0.71 | 0.76 |
| 1999 | 30 | 4 | 37 | 33 | 33 | 22 | 0 | 234.0 | 72 | 15 | 13 | 40 | 465 | 0.39 | 0.48 |
| TOTALS | 108 | 35 | 161 | 135 | 125 | 71 | 5 | 959.2 | 455 | 169 | 97 | 262 | 1343 | 0.71 | 0.74 |
| YEAR | W | L | GS | CG | SHO | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA | WHIP |
| 2004 | 8 | 4 | 14 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 94.2 | 62 | 32 | 22 | 49 | 83 | 1.63 | 1.18 |
| 2005 | 9 | 10 | 18 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 123.0 | 85 | 56 | 35 | 55 | 150 | 1.99 | 1.14 |
| 2006 | 7 | 4 | 14 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 82.0 | 83 | 41 | 33 | 53 | 64 | 2.81 | 1.66 |
| 2007 | 7 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 68.2 | 57 | 23 | 19 | 32 | 68 | 1.95 | 1.30 |
| TOTALS | 31 | 22 | 55 | 25 | 8 | 5 | 368.1 | 287 | 152 | 109 | 189 | 365 | 2.07 | 1.29 |
| Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UMass Lowell River Hawks(America East Conference)(2015–2021) | |||||||||
| 2015 | UMass Lowell | 17–30 | 5–11 | 6th[23] | |||||
| 2016 | UMass Lowell | 11–39 | 3–14 | 6th[24] | |||||
| 2017 | UMass Lowell | 21–19 | 12–5 | 2nd[25] | |||||
| 2018 | UMass Lowell | 21–28 | 12–5 | 2nd[26] | |||||
| 2019 | UMass Lowell | 28–20 | 15–3 | 1st[27] | |||||
| 2020 | UMass Lowell | 7–9 | 0–0 | [28] | Season cancelled due toCOVID-19 | ||||
| 2021 | UMass Lowell | 13–18 | 9–7 | 4th[29] | |||||
| UMass Lowell: | 118–163 (.420) | 56–45 (.554) | |||||||
| UMass Minutewomen(Atlantic 10 Conference)(2022–present) | |||||||||
| 2022 | UMass | 19–32 | 12–12 | T–6th[30] | |||||
| 2023 | UMass | 17–34 | 8–18 | 8th[31] | |||||
| UMass: | 36–66 (.353) | 20–30 (.400) | |||||||
| Total: | 70–116 (.376) | ||||||||
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