Danielle Brown '18 returns to her alma mater for her fourth season as a softball assistant coach with the 2023 season.
Saint Michael's finished fourth in the nation in double plays per game in 2022 while shattering the school record for home runs, slugging 35 in 39 games. The Purple Knights led the Northeast-10 Conference in longballs while posting their best offensive numbers nearly across the board in more than a decade. Highlighting the season was an eight-inning victory over regionally-ranked University of New Haven, one of four walk-off wins. Jenna Devens '25 turned in one of the top seasons ever at Saint Michael's, breaking the program's season mark for homers (12) while becoming the first Purple Knight to pace the NE10 in dingers. She was named NE10 Rookie of the Year and to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-East Region second team.
With the Purple Knights returning to the field in 2021 for the first time in two years, 13 student-athletes who had yet to play a college game dotted the roster. Five women from five different states comprised the first-year class, with four hailing from beyond the region, including Minnesota and Wisconsin. Saint Michael's tied for fifth in program history with 13 home runs - in 25 games - its most since 2007. Twelve of the Purple and Gold's contests were decided by three runs or less, including a 1-0 loss to Assumption University in the first round of the Northeast-10 Conference Championship during the program's first postseason appearance in 16 years.
The 2020 spring season was canceled before a single game due to the COVID-19 pandemic during Brown's debut campaign as a college coach.
One of the top pitchers in program history, Brown also has an extensive coaching résumé. She was the junior varsity head coach at nearby South Burlington High School in 2019 and has been a private pitching instructor since 2017. The Vergennes native has coached with the Vermont Storm club program since 2015, assisting the U16 and U18 teams while also instructing at pitching clinics. Brown was an assistant coach at Albert D. Lawson Intermediate School in Essex Junction in 2016 and 2017 and served as a counselor at the Saint Michael's summer softball camp from 2015 to 2017.
Brown graduated second in program history in career strikeouts (492), innings pitched (522.1) and shutouts (7) while tying for second in pitching appearances (102). She was also third in complete games and fourth in wins. Brown placed among the top three in the Northeast-10 Conference in strikeouts per seven innings each of her final three seasons, including while fanning 167 batters as a senior in 2018, the most by a Purple Knight in 11 years.
Brown graduated in 2018 with a degree in accounting, having also minored in business administration.
