Ithaca College

Ithaca softball coach Deb Pallozzi has been voted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Hall of Fame. Pallozzi will be one of just two members of the 2011 induction class, who will join the Hall of Fame at the 2011 NFCA Convention in Las Vegas. The announcement was made at the recently concluded 2010 NFCA Convention in San Diego.

Pallozzi will be one of just 55 members of the NFCA Hall of Fame, which inducted its first class in 1991 and just the seventh Division III coach in the Hall of Fame.

Her induction will be the third for a current Ithaca head coach in the past five years. Baseball coach George Valesente was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association in 2005 and men’s lacrosse coach Jeff Long was inducted into the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 2009.

Since taking over as the Bombers’ head coach in 1989, Pallozzi has won 624 games in 22 seasons, leading Ithaca to 18 NCAA playoff appearances, including the 2002 national championship. The Bombers have made eight other trips to the world series, placing fourth in 2005 and 2008. Pallozzi’s teams have won or shared the Empire 8 regular-season title all nine years the sport has been sponsored by the conference and won the conference tournament  five of the seven times it’s been held. She’s been named Empire 8 Coach of the Year four times.

While posting a record of 624-299-1 in 22 years at Ithaca (her overall record, which includes two years at Rensselaer, is 629-320-1), Pallozzi has coached 14 all-Americans and eight academic all-Americans. The Bombers ranked 10th nationally last year with a 3.447 grade-point average; they ranked eighth in 2009, marking the first time the Bombers have finished in the nation's top 10 in consecutive seasons.