Coach Profile
Camp Director
Dennis Shores
Dennis Shores took over as Guilford's fifth fastpitch softball head coach in January 2007, just prior to the season's start. He inherited a struggling program that won nine games the previous season and had 11 students on the roster. Entering his school-record 14th Guilford campaign, Shores and the Quakers have rewritten the school-record books.
Most recently in 2020, Shores helped Guilford to a 7-5 record before the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shores led the 2017 team a program-best 30-13 record. The Quakers finished tied for second place in the ODAC regular season with a 14-6 league mark. The Quakers were ranked in the season's first NCAA Division III Atlantic Region Poll. The club set a number of program records, including team offensive bests for batting average (.381); slugging percentage (.538); on-base percentage (.430); runs (329); RBI (295) and hits (498).
Despite starting on such an ominous note in 2007, Shores coaxed the short-handed Quakers to 10 wins. Following a year of training and recruiting, Guilford won 20 games in 2008 and made the young program's second Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament appearance. The league's softball coaches awarded Shores the 2008 ODAC Coach of the Year Award. The program took another step forward in 2009 with 26 wins and its first ODAC Tournament victory. Guilford set 46 team and individual marks that year and ranked 11th in Division III with a .971 fielding percentage. In 2010, Shores coached a club that won 28 games, received its initial NCAA regional ranking, earned the top seed in the ODAC Tournament, and set or tied 34 team and individual standards. Guilford enjoyed its third straight 25-win season in 2011 when the team went 26-15 and again reached the ODAC Tournament.
The Quakers won 29 games in 2014 and placed third in the ODAC Tournament, a new high. Guilford also produced the program's first All-American, first-team second baseman Cynthia Hayes '14. Shores helped Guilford set or tie another 17 school standards in 2014 and saw Hayes and Marty Wilcox '15 both collect First Team All-ODAC and All-Atlantic Region laurels. Shores led the Quakers to 24 victories in 2015, and 25 in 2016, earning ODAC Tournament berths in both campaigns.
Shores has a 305-241-2 (.555) record in 14 seasons and owns the school records for most softball coaching victories and seasons. His students have combined for 13 all-region, 23 all-state, and 31 All-ODAC commendations. In 2016, Third Team All-ODAC selection Laura Hall earned the ODAC/Virginia Farm Bureau Insurance Softball Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award for the second-straight season. She was also named a Second Team Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the first Guilford softball student to be honored.
Shores came to Guilford after three seasons as an assistant coach at Neumann (Pa.) College, during which time the Knights compiled a 60-52 record. He worked with head coach Bill Saar and helped Neumann to its first Pennsylvania Athletic Conference title and NCAA Division III Tournament berth in 2006.
A native of Chester County, Pa., Shores founded and coached the Chester County Stars, a United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) softball program with youth teams in five age groups. He served as Tournament Director for the Stars College Showcase and as president of GGS Fastpitch. A member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, Shores hosted winter pitching clinics in the Downingtown (Pa.) area for six years and is also an experienced hitting instructor.
Shores resides in High Point, North Carolina, with his wife, Susan. The couple has three children and six grandchildren.