South Campus Sports Complex Houston, Texas

Todd Bradely

After three highly successful years at North Carolina’s Pfeiffer University Todd Bradley is set to join the Incarnate Word athletic staff as the Cardinals softball coach.

According to UIW Athletic Director Mark Papich, Bradley will be working fulltime with the Cardinals beginning January 4.

“Todd’s goals and aspirations as a coach mesh almost perfectly with our needs in the softball
program right now,” Papich said.  “He has shown a consistent pattern of improvement in his career.  He has started two
programs, he has been an assistant at the Division I level and he has run a successful program in Division II.”

Over the last three seasons at Pfeiffer, Bradley’s teams have amassed 83 wins including 30 wins in 2008 which was the first time the school had achieved that level.  That same squad made Pfeiffer’s first-ever trip to the NCAA Division II tournament.  In his three seasons at Pfeiffer the team advanced from sixth to fourth to third in the Conference Carolinas.  Members of his teams were all-conference as well as all-region.

A native of Oregon, Bradley has been the chairman of the Conference Carolinas softball committee and he currently is serving as the conference representative to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

Prior to going to Pfeiffer in 2007, he as the assistant at Utah State University where his principal responsibilities were in hitting and outfield play.  He also was a major contributor in recruiting, travel and summer camps.

In 2003 he was the coach for a startup program at Western Baptist College in Oregon.  And prior to that he was the coach who initiated a softball program at Blue Mountain Community College in Oregon.

Bradley is a graduate of Western Baptist.  His bachelor’s degree is in sports and fitness
management.

Denise Lira

Denise Lira enters her second season as head softball coach at Concordia University Texas. She has also served as the co-advisor for the athletic department’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Lira led the Tornados to a 24-18 overall ledger, including a 13-8 mark in American Southwest Conference play, and the program’s second consecutive appearance in the league tournament in her first season on the sidelines in 2011. Headlined by Jessica Rattan, who became the first student-athlete in program history to be named the ASC West Division Player of the Year, eight players and over half of the roster garnered conference postseason honors.

In addition to having the division’s biggest bat in her lineup, Lira’s squad had one of the top fielding percentages in the ASC as well as a pitching staff that established several records. Kat Moreno and Alexis Lynn combined for the first no-hitter in the program annals on March 19 against Sul Ross State before Teylor Schiefelbein, who was the only freshman to make the All-ASC West Division First Team, became the first individual to accomplish the feat on April 15 against Howard Payne. The team’s 2.62 ERA was also a new program standard.

Prior to Concordia, Lira spent the last eight seasons at American Southwest Conference West Division foe Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton as a student-athlete and assistant coach. She helped lead the Crusaders to seven ASC tournaments, three West Division titles and one NCAA Tournament appearance in both capacities.

Lira, who served as an assistant coach for five seasons, and the rest of the staff were named the 2008 National Fastpitch Coaches Association Regional Coaching Staff of the Year after advancing to the NCAA Regional Tournament. The group was again honored in 2010 by earning the ASC West Division Coaching Staff of the Year following their third division title in four years.

Lira played two seasons for the Crusaders, earning All-West Division laurels in both seasons. The CTX mentor also earned two letters at Ranger Junior College, where she garnered all-conference first team accolades and was selected to the NJCAA All-Star Weekend, before transferring to Mary Hardin-Baylor.

A native of San Antonio, Lira earned a bachelor’s degree in exercise sport science with a minor in psychology from Mary Hardin-Baylor in 2004 and a master’s degree from the same institution in exercise sport science with an emphasis in sports management in 2008. She currently resides in Austin.

Mandee Gamboa

Mandee Gamboa in the summer of 2011 stepped up to fulltime assistant coach for the Cardinals softball program. 

Previously she worked the spring of 2011 as a volunteer assistant coach after graduating from UIW in December of 2010 with her master’s degree in kinesiology.

A native of El Paso, Gamboa played two seasons at Angelo State where she earned her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. At ASU she was an All-Lone Star Conference performer and was all-tournament as her senior year team finished 50-9 while winning the LSC South Division, the LSC tournament and reaching the final game of the regional tournament.

Prior to Angelo State she played two years at El Paso Community College where she was all-conference both seasons. In 2000 her team posted the best record in school history, 50-17, on the way to conference, region and district titles and a trip to the national tournament.

After her collegiate days were complete, Gamboa played on the 2005 Mexican National Team in the Pan American Fast Pitch Softball Tournament in Guatemala City, Guatemala. Thirteen countries competed and she was named to the all-tournament team and was voted the MVP among outfielders.