Urbana University Softball Coaching Staff

Head Coach: Nicole Pluger (University of Toledo '97) Nicole Pluger has put Blue Knight softball on the proverbial map. Entering her fourth season as Urbana’s head softball coach, she has already led Urbana University to back-to-back Region IX tournaments. Heading into the 2008 season her squad attained an NAIA No. 29 preseason ranking. In 2007 her softball team accomplished a feat no other team at Urbana has before; the Blue Knights won the American Mideast Conference South Division regular season championship. Pluger was named AMC and NAIA Region IX Coach of the Year, while six of her players earned all-AMC accolades, including first team honors for senior shortstop Katie Mallett. In three seasons Pluger has had 16 players named all-conference and two named to the AMC South Division all-Freshman Team (Jackie Masur and Linsey Manning). Pluger, of Dayton, Ohio, served as an assistant softball coach for Sheila Nahrgang at Wright State University from 1998 to 2004 where she helped guide the WSU program to some of its most successful seasons. The 2003 Raiders won the Horizon League tournament, defeating the No. 1, 2, 4 and 6 seeds. Then the Wright State softball team made history by becoming the first eighth seed to ever win a game at the NCAA Regional tournament, defeating Missouri, 3-1. The Raiders won 169 games over her career, including 36 victories in 2000, a school record for wins in a single season. Pluger mentored 11 all-conference athletes, and four all-Great Lakes Region selections (Amber Kolle, Michelle Demmitt, Annie Divac and Nikki Scott). Pluger served as an academic advisor and her players got it done in the classroom as well as they did on the field. The Raiders had the 13th best grade point average in the nation for a Division I program in 2002. Prior to her stint at WSU, Pluger coached three years at the University of Toledo. In her first season with the Rockets she created and implemented a recruiting program, working as a graduate assistant. She was named interim head coach at Toledo in the fall of 1997 and led the squad to a winning season. She then served as an assistant coach the remainder of the season until 1998. Pluger has worked several softball clinics including: Kent State University, Eastern Kentucky University, Wright State Summer and Winter Softball Camps, University of Toledo, Ottawa Hills Softball Recreation Camp, Tom Judson’s Pitching and Catching Camps in Grand Rapids, Mich. She also hosted her own youth camp along with Bill Van Horn in Kent City, Mich. Pluger, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., was a four-year letter winner on the University of Toledo softball team. She was an all-MAC shortstop for the Rockets, which led the nation in double plays in NCAA Division I during her junior season. She earned her bachelor of arts degree in commercial recreation from Toledo. Pluger played her high school softball at Northview, where she was a two-time all-conference, all-District and all-State selection. Northview won the 1991 Michigan High School state championship her junior year. Pluger had a .402 career batting average and she holds the school record for career runs scored (117). She was also a member of the illustrious Northview 30-30-30 Club her sophomore, junior and senior years in which she had at least 30 hits, 30 runs and 30 RBIs. Nicole is the daughter of Gerald and Patricia Pluger of Grand Rapids, Mich.

Assistant Coach: Kim Sycks (Wright State University ‘02) Kim Sycks is in her fourth year as assistant coach for the Blue Knights. She specializes in working with the pitchers and first basemen. Coach Sycks, of Piqua, Ohio, enjoyed a prolific four-year career at Wright State University as a pitcher and first baseman. She was named to the all-Horizon League Newcomer Team her freshman year. The following season, in which she threw a no-hitter against Loyola University, Sycks was named a second team all-Horizon League pitcher. In 2000, she was honored as a member of the Horizon League all-Tournament team, and earned first team all-conference accolades her junior year as a utility player. Sycks closed out her career as a first team all-league first baseman her senior year and was named the Raider MVP. Sycks left her mark at WSU, breaking several Raider records, including: homeruns in a season (7), career homeruns (18), career putouts (775) and career shutouts (13). Coach Sycks had a 2.04 ERA over her four-year career, which is third all-time in WSU softball history. She is also second in the record books for career wins (38) and strikeouts (345). She finished with 93 RBIs, second all-time at WSU. Coach Sycks went on to become an undergraduate assistant for the Raiders from 2001-2002. She graduated with her bachelor of arts degree in organizational communications in 2002. Following her collegiate career, Sycks played professionally for the Celina Suns fast pitch softball team. Sycks played her high school softball at Piqua where she was a three-time all-State selection (twice a first team selection and once a second team selection). She also earned first team all-GMVC honors. Sycks holds nearly every softball record at Piqua High School: career RBIs, career batting average, career wins, career strikeouts and lowest ERA. Sycks is an escrow officer at the Talon Group in Dayton, Ohio. She is the daughter of Robert and Connie Sycks, and has three sisters, Jenny, Betsey and Cindy.