Megan Lynn Gibson-Loftin (born March 25, 1986) is an American, former collegiate All-American, professional

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

and current pitching coach at

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

. Gibson-Loftin played college softball for

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

where she is the career leader in offense walks and led them to a runner-up finish at the

2008 Women's College World Series The 2008 NCAA Division I softball tournament was held from May 15 through June 4, 2008. 64 NCAA Division I college softball teams met after having played their way through a regular season, and for some, a conference tournament, to play in the ...

. She also ranks top-10 in the latter category and home runs in the

Big 12 Conference The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its ...

. She was selected by the Philadelphia Force as the second overall pick in the

2008 NPF Draft The 2008 NPF Senior Draft is the fifth annual NPF Draft. It was held February 18, 2008 via conference call for the 2008 season. The first selection was Arizona State's Katie Burkhart, picked by the Philadelphia Force. Athletes are not allowe ...

, eventually playing for four seasons. After the Force folded she was picked up by the Tennessee Diamonds in 2010.

Career

College

Born Megan Lynn Gibson in

Spring, Texas Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Houston in Harris County, Texas, United States, part of the metropolitan area. The population was 62,559 at the 2020 census. While the name "Spring" is popu ...

, Gibson-Loftin played college softball at

from 2004 to 2008. In the 2008 season, she was collegiate national player of the week from February 25 to March 2. She led her team to win the program's second Big 12 regular season and first tournament championship. In the postseason, she led her team to the Final Series of the

. Gibson ended her senior season as runner-up for

USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year The USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year is an award given by USA Softball to the best college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United S ...

honors, as a first-team NFCA All-American, and the first player to win both

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

and Pitcher of the Year honors from the Big 12. She graduated from Texas A&M in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in

sport management Sport management is the field of business dealing with sports and recreation. Sports management involves any combination of skills that correspond with planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, or evaluating of any organiz ...

with a minor in business.

Professional career

Gibson-Loftin played professional softball for

National Pro Fastpitch National Pro Fastpitch (NPF), formerly the Women's Pro Softball League (WPSL), was a professional women's softball league in the United States. The teams battled for the Cowles Cup. The WPSL was founded in 1997 and folded in 2001; the NPF revive ...

from 2008 to 2011. The second overall pick in the 2008 NPF draft selected by the Philadelphia Force, Gibson-Loftin played for the Force from 2008 to 2009 and for the Tennessee (later NPF) Diamonds from 2010 to 2011. In 2009, Gibson-Loftin played for Denso of Women's Major League Softball in Japan.

Coaching career

Along with her career in the NPF, Gibson served under Texas A&M head coach Jo Evans as a graduate assistant in Fall 2008 and again as a volunteer pitching coach during the 2011 season. She also spent time as a softball instructor at High Performance Baseball in Tomball and as a volunteer assistant coach at Spring High School in 2010. Gibson joined the Penn State coaching staff after spending two seasons as an assistant under Coach Lehotak at

University of Texas at San Antonio The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is a Public university, public research university in San Antonio, Texas. With over 34,000 students across its four campuses spanning 758 acres, UTSA is the Education in San Antonio, largest universi ...

Personal life

Gibson-Loftin married Lance Loftin, a former professional baseball player who played college baseball at

Texas State Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...

, in 2015.

Career statistics

References

External links

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Penn State bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson-Loftin, Megan 1986 births Living people American expatriate sportspeople in Japan Texas A&M Aggies softball players American softball coaches Texas A&M Aggies softball coaches Houston Cougars softball coaches Penn State Nittany Lions softball coaches People from Spring, Texas Philadelphia Force players Sportspeople from Harris County, Texas Softball players from Texas