Chrissy Schoonmaker - Softball Coach - University of Houston Athletics

Chrissy Schoonmaker

Title:
Head Coach

CHRISSY SCHOONMAKER
Hometown	Sebastian, Fla.
College	South Carolina '07, '09
PLAYING EXPERIENCE
Level	School, Position
College	South Carolina, Utility (2004-08)
COACHING EXPERIENCE
Year	School, Position
2025 -	Houston, Head Coach
2021-25	George Washington, Head Coach
2020-21	Harvard, Assistant Coach
2014-19	UConn, Lead Assistant Coach
2013-14	Houston, Assistant Coach
2011-13	Texas Tech, Assistant Coach
2010	Dreher (S.C.) High School, Co-Head Coach
2009	Dreher (S.C.) High School, Assistant Coach
HEAD COACHING RECORD
Year	Record	Postseason
2022	36-17 (21-3 A-10; A-10 Regular Season Champs)	NISC Super Regionals; A-10 Finals
2023	17-28 (7-19 A-10)	None
2024	27-26 (12-14 A-10)	None
2025	33-21 (16-10 A-10)	A-10 Tournament
TOTAL	113-92 (.551)	56-46 (.549)

QUICK HITS

2022 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year
2022 Atlantic 10 Regular-Season Champs
Mentored 18 All-Conference Selections
Tutored six All-Region players and an All-American
Coached two Pitcher of the Year and a Player of the Year
Played collegiate softball for South Carolina as a utility from 2004-08
Fastest coach to 100 wins in GW history
Second most winningest coach in GW history
Recorded the most A-10 wins by a coach during her tenure at GW in program history

Chrissy Schoonmaker was named the third Head Coach in Houston Softball history on June 10, 2025, following four seasons as the head coach at George Washington where she led the Buff and Blue to a 113-92 record and the 2022 Atlantic 10 regular-season championship in her first season at the helm.

In 2025, Schoonmaker tutored her second A-10 Pitcher of the Year in four seasons while guiding George Washington to the 25^th-best ERA in the nation and leading the A-10 in ERA, strikeout-to-walk ratio, shutouts, strikeouts per seven innings and WHIP. Previously in 2024, Schoonmaker guided the Buff and Blue to the top spot in the A-10 in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging and scoring.

Over four seasons at George Washington, Schoonmaker led GW to two 30+ win seasons and turned the Revolutionaries around from 17 wins in 2023 to 27 victories in 2024 and 33 wins in 2025, a 16-win improvement over the last two years.

Schoonmaker rejoins the Big 12 Conference after beginning her coaching career at Texas Tech in 2012 and has mentored 18 All-Conference selections, two Pitchers of the Year and a Player of the Year.

Led by NFCA All-American Sierra Lange and A-10 Player of the Year Alexa Williams, GW went 36-17 in 2022, including a 21-3 mark in conference play, and advanced to the A-10 Championship final before concluding its season at the National Invitational Softball Championship in Fort Collins, Colo.

After a 6-10 start, the group surged down the stretch by winning 27 of 30 to finish the regular season, highlighted by a 13-game winning streak which tied a program record.

The Buff and Blue finished the regular season ranked among the top 100 nationally in RPI and ended up among the national leaders in several statistical categories. They were recognized for a memorable spring with Lange and Williams pacing a program-record five All-Conference First-Team selections.

A veteran leader with more than a decade of experience at the highest levels of the sport, Schoonmaker arrived at Houston for her second head coach position after four years at GW and assistant coach stints at Harvard, UConn, Houston, Texas Tech and her alma mater South Carolina.

Schoonmaker spent the 2020-21 academic year on staff at Harvard, during which she helped lead the Crimson's virtual programming amid the COVID-19 pandemic with an emphasis on team building and leadership development through core value study. The Sebastian, Fla., native also contributed to the SEC Network's softball coverage as a game analyst this spring for the second consecutive season.

Before heading to the Ivy League, Schoonmaker spent a year as assistant director of development at South Carolina where she was part of major-gift fundraising efforts for the athletics department, including creating an initiative – The Women of South Carolina – which has raised more than $1 million to date to provide resources for female student-athletes at her alma mater.

Schoonmaker’s latest tenure at USC followed five seasons as lead assistant at UConn. Her wide-ranging responsibilities included practice planning, scouting and recruiting for the Huskies, who recorded 95 wins from 2015-19 competing in the American Athletic Conference. In her final campaign, the program produced five All-AAC performers, including a pair of First-Team picks, as well as 14 AAC All-Academic Team honorees.

In 2014, Schoonmaker was on staff for Houston’s run to the NCAA Regionals. The Cougars totaled 33 victories and earned an at-large berth in the Waco Regional. She served as infield coach for a group that set a single-season program record for double plays turned and helped increase the team fielding percentage by 12 points from the previous spring.

Schoonmaker began her collegiate coaching career with three seasons working at the Power Five level. She served as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Texas Tech during the 2013 season, helping the Red Raiders record 30 victories after two years as a volunteer assistant at her alma mater.

Following the end of her playing career, Schoonmaker also spent two seasons in the high school coaching ranks at Dreher High School in Columbia, S.C., rising to become co-head coach during the spring of 2010.

At South Carolina, Schoonmaker was a four-year captain, member of two NCAA squads and versatile contributor who logged time at nearly every position on the diamond over her five seasons with the Gamecocks.

She was named to the SEC All-Defensive Team as a graduate student in 2008 and received the Athletic Department’s Gamecock Inspiration Award that year in recognition of her determined comeback after sustaining a broken neck in a car accident that kept her out of the 2007 season.

A five-time SEC All-Academic Honor Roll selection, Schoonmaker earned her undergraduate degree from South Carolina majoring in psychology in 2007 before earning a master’s in mass communication and journalism in 2009.

At Florida’s Sebastian River High School, she was a two-time All-State softball performer, also lettering in basketball, soccer, volleyball and track.