MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – After six seasons of consistent success, and a historic 2025 season, softball Head Coach McCall Salmon has announced the promotion of Assistant Coach Sara Driesenga to Associate Head Coach effectively immediately.
 

Driesenga, who has served as the pitching coach and as an assistant coach for every year Salmon has been leading the program, has become invaluable to the success of the Maroon & Gold during the recent stretch of achievements for Chippewa Softball over the last six seasons.

“I am thrilled to promote Coach Driesenga to Associate Head Coach” says Coach Salmon. “Her dedication, leadership and unwavering commitment to our program have made a lasting impact on both our players and staff. This promotion is a testament to her hard work, ability to inspire, and vision for our continued success. We are fired up to see how she continues to lead our pitching saff and impact our student-athletes daily.”

 

A standout pitcher for the University of Michigan and Hudsonville, Michigan native, has bred success in the circle for Chippewa pitchers that have since stamped their names in the Central Michigan Softball record book.

 

Grace Lehto, a 2024 graduate of the program, who pitched for four seasons under the leadership of Driesenga, was named First Team All-MAC twice, earned Second Team honors once, and was named to the Mid-American Conference All-Tournament in 2022.

 

Lehto, who ended her career with 567 strikeouts, ranks third in program history in that category. Under Driesenga, Lehto made 131 appearances in the circle, third best in program history, collect the ninth most wins in a career with 50, charted a second best six saves, threw 61 complete games, seventh most in program history, and her 623.3 innings pitched, and the fifth most by any pitcher in Central Michigan Softball history.

 

Against Bowling Green, April 26^th of 2023, Lehto threw the most recent no-hitter in program history.

 

“I am so thrilled for Coach Sara in her new role; nobody is more deserving than her. When I was recruited to play at CMU, I was so excited to have the opportunity to learn from and be coached by one of the most legendary pitchers in our game.” Says Lehto.

 

“Little did I know the impact that Coach Sara would have on not only my athletic career as a pitcher at Central Michigan, but on my life. Her mentorship made me a better pitcher in so many ways; she knows the game of softball from every angle. She is so intelligent and creates an individual relationship with each pitcher to help them achieve their full potential. Her mentorship has also led be to be a better teammate, friend, sister, human. I am so fortunate to have been coaches by Sara, she has had a forever impact on my life, and I am so grateful I know call her a friend for life.”

 

In the last six seasons leading CMU, the Chippewa pitching staff under the direction of Driesenga has been consistently thriving in the statistical categories.

 

CMU has held opponents to a .289 batting average in the last six seasons combined, sixth best in the league, and ranks fourth in both strikeouts (1312, 218/season) and .63 strikeouts/hit allowed. The 218.7 strikeouts per season, is also fourth best in the conference.

 

In the 2025 season, Mackenzie Langan was named First Team All-MAC as a right-handed pitcher for the Chippewas.

 

Langan posted a 2.94 ERA in her junior season, and a 2.03 ERA in MAC play. Her total ERA for the season was third best in the MAC, and holding her opponents to a .261 batting average, she held the sixth best spot in the conference. Langan collected 13 wins in the 2025 season – fifth best in the MAC and tossed 11 complete games with six shutouts.

 

For the latest news and updates on CMU Softball, follow the team on X (@cmusoftball) and Instagram (@cmichsoftball).

 

 

We’ve heard change is coming.

In a few days, the House v. NCAA settlement goes into effect. College sports will then enter a new era with significant changes in financial compensation for athletes.

But don’t be too concerned about all the impending changes. Some things won’t change. There will still be pageantry, rabid fan bases, championship games and, of course, cheating.

That won’t go away. The old saying in college sports is if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying. Whether it be football, basketball, baseball or probably anything else, colleges will all be “trying.” Some just try harder than others.

Texas A&M Director of Athletics Trev Alberts acknowledged as much earlier this week when discussing the upcoming changes brought on by the settlement.

“Are we ever gonna stop (somebody) from taking a brown paper bag of money and giving it to a player?” Alberts asked rhetorically. “We can’t.”

Those who live in a Utopian world with unicorns may wonder if that would be the case. After all, college programs now have $20.5 million to share with athletes. Why cheat, then?

Anybody who’s ever taken a job for more money knows the answer. And throughout the history of college football, there has always been a bag man lurking in the shadows to offer more money.

An extra $10 grand — or much more — on the side might convince a recruit or transfer which program to join.

The guess here is that most illegal activity will be done under the guise of Name, Image & Likeness (NIL). A few years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that athletes can profit from NIL. Many have and still will.

Business-owning boosters have offered big money for endorsements from star athletes. There’s nothing illegal about that.

However, under the House settlement, the accounting firm of Deloitte will act as an independent clearinghouse to ensure NIL deals represent fair market value.

But what if Oregon decides it needs a quarterback? What’s stopping Nike Chairman Phil Knight, a wealthy Oregon booster, from extending a seven-figure endorsement deal to a prospect? Who’s to say that’s fair market value for a Nike commercial?

That might not even be against the rules. But what if Auburn approached Apple CEO Tim Cook, an Auburn grad, about a similar deal and offered to fund it?

A university official contacts a big business, such as American Express or General Motors… You get the idea. The official asks the business to offer a player $1 million endorsement deal. The university then offers to funnel the $1 million to the company.

No doubt, even more creative ways will be schemed to move money under the table. Alberts knows this.

“Our culture in college athletics is ‘tell me the rules so I can get busy working on a strategy to circumvent them,’” he said. “We’re never going to get where we need to go in college athletics if we don’t recognize that.

“If there’s anything that should have taught us that it’s the unregulated market of the last three or four years. Everybody wants to be governed. We just want to make sure other conferences are governed, too.

“But will there be ways around it? Will there be people that test it? Absolutely?”

Alberts said there will be harsh penalties for violators. He said a new breed of diligent NCAA investigators will be waiting to identify and punish programs and coaches who break rules.

We’ve heard that before, right? The old NCAA wasn’t hesitant to deal out punishment. It’s just that the severity of punishments seemed to change depending on the offender.

Remember the line from old UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian? “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky that they’re going to give Cleveland State two more years of probation.”

Need an example closer to home? In 1994, the NCAA ruled that some Texas A&M football players were paid for work that wasn’t done in a summer construction job. Never mind that other workers who were not athletes were also paid.

That didn’t matter to the NCAA, which banned A&M from competing for the Southwest Conference championship or playing in a bowl game. The Aggies, by the way, were undefeated that season.

Fast forward a dozen years. In 2006, Oklahoma quarterback Rhett Bomar, offensive lineman J.D. Quinn and a walk-on were found to have been paid for work not performed by a Norman car dealership.

Oklahoma received a public reprimand and lost two scholarships for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.

Alberts acknowledged that there cannot be similar disproportionate punishments moving forward.

“I will tell you — and I pray that it’s not Texas A&M, and we’re working hard to make sure it’s not —but you’re going to have to have a ‘brand’ school get a penalty that’s significant and it sticks,” Alberts said. “And you may have to do it more than once.”

Is Alberts really suggesting higher-profile programs be held to the same standard and face the same sanctions if caught cheating?

That would be nice for a change.

Charlie Ward is smiling somewhere, seeing Florida State’s newest commitment as 4-star WR and two-sport athlete, Jasen Lopez, committed to Florida State on Thursday in a post from On3’s Hayes Fawcett. Lopez will also play basketball, he announced in his commitment, which would make him the second two-sport athlete on Florida State’s football team, along with BJ Gibson, who played baseball last spring.

Lopez plays high school football at South Florida powerhouse Chaminade-Madonna and won Broward County Player of the Year after playing football and basketball in his junior season.

Miami was thought to be the favorite for Lopez as the Hurricanes received his final official visit, but Mike Norvell, head basketball coach Luke Loucks and wide receiver coach Tim Harris Jr. found a way to bring him to Tallahassee. The athletic department has not been afraid of bringing in multi-sport athletes and Lopez joins a long list of Seminoles to play two in two different vocations.

According to 247Sports, is 5’10’’ 165 pounds and the 252nd player in the country in their composite rankings.

NIL has changed the way college football is being played. The Ohio State football program has tried to navigate the changes the best that it can, but they are still going through some growing pains as well. That has only intensified after the House Settlement.

Now that there is an actual budget set for athletic departments, the Buckeyes have to be very selective on who they use their NIL money on. So far, a lot of their money has been used to retain players who have been on the roster already. They decided to use the money to keep Jeremiah Smith, Caleb Downs, and others.

The Ohio State Buckeyes might be going a little cheap when it comes to using NIL on recruits, but this is something that Ohio State football fans are going to have to get used to, bexcause this is clearly a philsophy that Ryan Day is going to keep moving forward.

The Ohio State football team will keep using NIL on players who are already on the roster

There are very few recruits that come out of the high school ranks every year that the Buckeyes will look to use large sums of NIL money on. Smith was one of them a couple of years ago. Felix Ojo might be one this season. Those kinds of recruits are far and few to be found.

Ohio State believes that the best approach to NIL is to keep the guys they have on the roster happy and playing well. The top priority for a recruit can’t be the amount of NIL money they are going to get. If that is their top priority, Day won’t pursue them any further.

This is something fans are going to have to get used to moving forward. Once a couple of years of the new rules have passed, fans will be used to it.

D1Baseball released its 2025 All-American teams following the conclusion of the Men’s College World Series, giving us first through third teams across all positions. There are big names across the board, including Golden Spikes Award winner Wehiwa Aloy who, surprisingly, appears on the Second Team.

Sixteen of the All-Americans played in this year’s College World Series. National champion LSU leads the way with four selections, with runner-up Coastal Carolina and Oregon State totaling three.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the All-American teams. First up, well, the first team.

First-Team All-American, Catcher

Caden Bodine, Coastal Carolina

The junior catcher was an anchor for the College World Series runner-ups, as he hit for a .318 average with 18 doubles, five home runs, 42 RBI, a .461 SLG% and a .454 OBP% this season. He was also named a 2025 Division I ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner.

First Base

Andrew Fischer, Tennessee

Fischer excelled in his first season in Knoxville, hitting for a .341 average with 16 doubles, 25 home runs, 65 RBI, a .760 SLG% and a .497 OBP%. After being named a Second Team All-SEC selection in 2024 at Ole Miss, he was named a First Team All-SEC selection this season.

Second Base

Kaleb Freeman, Georgia State

The 2025 Sun Belt Newcomer of the Year burst onto the college baseball scene this season, hitting for a .358 average with 16 home runs, 45 RBI, a .758 SLG% and a .512 OBP%. Freeman, who set Georgia State single-season records with 28 doubles and 61 walks, announced his transfer to Texas on June 14.

Third Base

Daniel Cuvet, Miami

Cuvet was instrumental in Miami‘s first trip to a Super Regional since 2016, hitting for a .372 average with 20 doubles, 18 home runs, 84 RBI, a .708 SLG% and a .450 OBP% this season. He was named First Team All-ACC.

Shortstop

Roch Cholowsky, UCLA

Cholowsky, who remains the early favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, hit for a .353 average with 19 doubles, 23 home runs and 74 RBI this season. The Big 10 Player of the Year made 120 putouts and 187 assists with just seven errors (.978%) at shortstop, earning an ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove Award.

Outfielder

Drew Burress, Georgia Tech

After earning D1Baseball Second Team All-American honors in 2024, Burress elevated himself to First Team in 2025. The Houston County, GA native hit for a .333 average with 23 doubles, 19 home runs, 62 RBI, a .693 SLG% and a .469 OBP% this season.

Outfielder

Ike Irish, Auburn

Irish seamlessly made the switch from catcher to outfield this season, earning First Team All-American honors and All-SEC First Team honors for the second consecutive season. He hit for a .364 average with 13 doubles, 19 home runs, 58 RBI, a .710 SLG% and a .469 OBP% this season.

Outfielder

James Quinn-Irons, George Mason

Quinn-Irons was one of the most underrated players in all of college baseball this season, hitting for a .419 average with 24 doubles, 16 home runs, 85 RBI, a .734 SLG% and a .523 OBP% this season for a George Mason team that fell just short of the NCAA Tournament. He was a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award.

Designated Hitter

Alex Lodise, Florida State

Lodise had a phenomenal junior season for the Seminoles, earning ACC Player of the Year honors along with being named a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award. While leading a Super Regional Seminole squad, Lodise hit for a .394 average with 18 doubles, 17 home runs, 68 RBI, a .705 SLG% and a .462 OBP% this season.

Utility

Evan Dempsey, Florida Gulf Coast

Dempsey did it all for FGCU this season, hitting for a .315 average with 19 doubles and 30 RBI, along with pitching to a 1.97 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 68 2/3 innings. He was named the 2025 John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year by the College Baseball Foundation.

Pitchers

SP Kade Anderson, LSU
SP Liam Doyle, Tennessee
SP Jake Knapp, North Carolina
SP Jacob Morrison, Coastal Carolina
SP Kyson Witherspoon, Oklahoma
RP Antoine Jean, Houston
RP Dylan Volantis, Texas

Second-Team All-American

C Boston Smith, Wright State
1B Jared Jones, LSU
2B Nick Monistere, Southern Miss
3B Kerrington Cross, Cincinnati
SS Wehiwa Aloy, Arkansas
OF Lucas Moore, Louisville
OF Devin Taylor, Indiana
OF Gavin Turley, Oregon State
DH Ace Reese, Mississippi State
UT Ethan Hedges, USC
SP Jamie Arnold, Florida State
SP Anthony Eyanson, LSU
SP Blake Gillespie, Charlotte
SP JB Middleton, Southern Miss
SP Zane Taylor, UNC Wilmington
RP Gabe Craig, Baylor
RP Tony Pluta, Arizona

Third-Team All-American

C Carson Tinney, Notre Dame
1B Brady Ballinger, Kansas
2B Mitch Voit, Michigan
3B Anthony DePino, Rhode Island
SS Aiva Arquette, Oregon State
OF Jonathan Hogart, Murray State
OF Mason Neville, Oregon
OF Cameron Nickens, Austin Peay
DH Mason White, Arizona
UT Bryce Calloway, New Orleans
SP Joseph Dzierwa, Michigan State
SP Cameron Flukey, Coastal Carolina
SP Jonathan Gonzalez, Stetson
SP Jack Ohman, Yale
SP Dax Whitney, Oregon State
RP Casan Evans, LSU
RP Sawyer Hawks, Vanderbilt

The number is $28 million.

According to a report that surfaced earlier this month, that is the amount of money that Cooper Flagg earned in NIL deals during his one year at Duke. 

Fast-forward to Wednesday night, when Flagg was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft by the Dallas Mavericks. The 2025 Naismith Award winner, which is given to the top player in college basketball, is projected to make upwards of $62 million on his rookie deal over the next four years. If Flagg lives up to his billing as a generational talent, it’s possible his second contract could be more than $350 million, while that figure for his third contract might be north of $500 million, according to projections from Spotrac.

Those are staggering numbers, and it could result in Flagg becoming the first North American athlete to earn $1 billion in on-court earnings. So, what is Flagg’s plan to manage that type of money?

On Thursday afternoon, less than 24 hours after he was selected at the top pick in the draft, Flagg announced a new partnership with Chime, kicking off a long-term collaboration rooted in financial success. To kick off the partnership, Flagg and his mother, Kelly, will star in the latest episode of “Mama, I Made It” — an original YouTube series that highlights the real stories behind success through the lens of the moms who helped shape it.

We caught up with Flagg ahead of his announcement to discuss his new partnership, as well as his experience as a high-profile athlete in the new-look NIL world of college athletics.

Tell me about your new partnership with Chime and what led to your decision to enter this partnership?

“It’s big for me. Obviously, I’ve been making money for a little while now. It started when I got to college and I think the partnership just really makes sense. I’m trying to learn about money, and Chime is a great tool that I can use to help teach me about finances.”

This partnership with debut in the “Mama I Made It” series. After talking with you, I know that your mom plays a big role in your life. Can you talk about the role she has played in your career as a role model and beyond that?

“My mom has been a huge role model. She was one of my first influences of everything and anything, specifically basketball. She played Division I herself at the University of Maine and she put a ball in my hands early. 

As far as finances, as I started to get more and more attention, she’s been really important when it comes to handling everything and putting a good system in place. She’s been there every step of the way and that has helped me navigate everything.”

How involved are you personally with some of your financial decisions when it comes to NIL dollars (and now NBA dollars) and how much of a role do your mom, family and advisors play in that?

“I have a team that helps me out with everything as far as finances. My mom is the main person that it all goes through. As far as myself, it’s kind of up to me what I want to know and what I want to learn. I’ve learned a lot from my mom as I’ve gone through this because of how important she’s been with handling everything and putting important systems in place. It’s been a learning curve for both of us.”

Let’s go back to the “Mama, I Made It” series where this partnership will debut. We talked about your mom, but what does the phrase “I Made It” mean to you?

“For me, it’s about being in a place where I’m in a very good spot financially. I’ve been blessed with a lot of good opportunities, but it’s about being prepared for the moment and having systems in place and being ready to handle everything that’s being thrown my way.”

What’s been the most eye-opening thing for you when it comes to navigating this new-age NIL world of college athletics?

“The biggest part is just trying to balance it all. It can demand a lot of time, and you can get lost and focused on that. But having systems in place and a team that is around to help me go through everything and make everything easier for me has been huge and just lets me focus on basketball.”

One thing that really stands out in the NIL space is how many big dollar numbers and arbitrary reports are thrown out there when it comes to NIL earnings. Do you pay attention to that stuff?

“A lot of basketball players and athletes deal with it … it’s really just something that you have to learn to deal with in your own certain ways. For me, it’s about ignoring it and not really reading into it. I know what the truth is and what’s going on. It’s about focusing on the people around me that are in my circle.”

Is that something that you’ve had to really learn and work with people that you’re close to? I have to imagine that it has to be really challenging to ignore all of that.

“It does come with challenges, and you learn over time how you deal with it personally. I think just having a support system around me – people that you’re really close with – has really helped with blocking out all the outside stuff.”

What advice would you give to an incoming highly touted freshman about navigating the NIL space?

“The biggest thing is getting educated and learning about it yourself so you know what’s going on. You have to have people around you that you trust and know are all about the right things so they can help lead you in the right direction and make things easier on you. You want to be able to focus on just playing and be able to do what you love to do.”

How is this new partnership with Chime going to help you navigate your finances?

“It’s going to help me learn and educate me on the financial aspects of everything. It’s a really great tool. It’s going to help educate me and continue to grow and learn about finances as it becomes more and more important in my life.”

Let’s close it out with a really fun question. If you could pick one guy in the NBA, a current player or incoming player, who you can’t wait to go up against, who is that player and why?

“I would say Khaman [Maluach]. He’s one of my former teammates. I love him, and he’s one of my best friends. That would be really cool.”

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