Claire Roll Named Head Softball Coach at Eastern Nazarene College

QUINCY, Mass.- Eastern Nazarene College Director of Athletics Dr. Brad Zarges has announced the hiring of Claire Roll as head softball coach. Roll becomes the 14th head coach in the program's 41-year history.

"We are very excited to welcome Coach Claire Roll to the Eastern Nazarene College family. From the very beginning of the process, it was clear that Coach Roll's experiences make her the ideal fit to lead a championship level program," commented Zarges. "As a player and coach, she has demonstrated excellence in every role she has filled. In particular, Coach Roll brings a desire to use softball as a platform to empower the women on the team and to share the love of Christ. The future of ENC Softball is in good hands as Coach Roll continues to build on the championship foundation that is in place."

"I am incredibly excited to be given the opportunity to join ENC's coaching staff as the head coach of the Softball team. It is an honor to work with such a successful and passionate team of athletes," stated Roll. "As a coach, I strive to be an avid listener, an effective communicator, and a life-long student of the game. Coaches are teachers and mentors of so much more than the rules and mechanics of their sport. My goal for this year, and in the future, is to come beside each one of my student-athletes, to honor the hard work that they have put in, and to share my passion for the game. We will push forward as a team and require of ourselves a renewed sense of excellence. This symbiotic structure of accountability and care, existing within the larger framework of rigorous academic study at ENC, has the potential to create substantial change in each student-athlete's life — to help her develop life-long skills that will serve her pursuits of excellence on and off the field."

Roll has served as head coach of the 18U Rage Softball travel team based out of Salisbury, Massachusetts since 2017 and guided the squad to a 28-3 record in 2020. Prior to joining Rage, she served as an assistant coach with the Blazers 18U Showcase travel team.

A 2012 graduate of Gordon College, Roll returned to her alma mater to join the Fighting Scots' coaching staff as an assistant coach for two seasons and helped lead the program to a pair of Commonwealth Coast Conference Tournament appearances.

Roll played three seasons at Gordon after transferring from Alfred University and holds numerous program records.

She graduated from Gordon in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sculpture before earning a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts in 2013 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from Boston University in 2016.

Roll has worked as an Assistant Professor of Art at Gordon as well as an Adjunct Professor at Bunker Hill Community College and an Instructor at Boston University.