Heather Gelbard

Heather Gelbard was hired by head coach Magali Frezzotti on August 8, 2023. In her role as assistant coach, Gelbard will oversee the Boilermakers' offensive efforts in addition to recruitment. Coming off two years at Georgia Southern where she held a similar role, Gelbard was primarily responsible for overseeing the team's hitting, culminating in the program's most triples since 2017, the most walks since 2019 and the most runs scored in a single conference game since 2015. "I'm excited to welcome Coach Gelbard and her family to West Lafayette," Frezzotti said. "She is a smart, curious, creative and knowledgeable coach with high expectations for Purdue softball. She adds both experience and expertise to our staff and will serve as our recruiting coordinator. Most importantly, she is passionate about serving this generation of student-athletes and helping them reach their potential." Prior to her time at Georgia Southern, Gelbard was a volunteer coach at South Carolina for two seasons (2019-2021). During her stint, she worked to develop two All-SEC and NFCA All-Southeast Region selections, an NFCA All-American and two CoSIDA Academic All-Americans with a primary focus on team defense and hitting. A former All-ACC and Academic All-American student-athlete at NC State, Gelbard began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Barry University (2007-09), where she guided her team to a DII World Series berth in 2008. She was an assistant coach at Florida Atlantic from 2010-16 before being named head coach at UMBC from 2016-18. Gelbard also served as the interim head coach at Florida International (FIU) for a season before joining the Gamecocks staff as a volunteer coach. Gelbard graduated from NC State with a bachelor's degree in psychology in 2007. Currently, she owns multiple Wolfpack records, including hits (261), games started (256), at-bats (834). She earned her master's degree in exercise science with a concentration in sports psychology from Barry in 2009.