Sharon Perkins Hometown: Sarasota, Fla. Position: Head Coach Experience: 3rd Season Alma Mater: Nicholls State, 1996

Sharon Perkins begins her third year at Georgia Tech needing just 14 more wins to reach 100 for her career. After leading the Yellow Jackets to a school-record 54 wins in 2007 and its highest final ranking at No. 16, Perkins might have had her most difficult coaching task in 2008. Despite numerous injuries to key starters, including just one healthy pitcher at one point in the season, Perkins guided the Jackets to a fourth-place finish in the ACC and their seventh-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.

Perkins' 2008 Jackets sat below .500 in late March, but won 13 of their last 15 games to earn the NCAA at-large bid. Included in this streak was a doubleheader sweep of rival Georgia for the second straight season. In fact, four of the program's nine wins against the Bulldogs have come in two years with Perkins at the helm.

Senior Aileen Morales broke the all-time stolen base record in 2008, while junior Whitney Haller set a new Tech home run mark and her first home run of 2009 will be an ACC record. Senior Savannah Brown set school and league records for RBI as well during the 2008 campaign.

2007 graduate Caitlin Lever and redshirt junior Jennifer Yee spent all of 2008 training with the Canadian National Team and played in the Beijing Olympics. The duo led the Canadians to a fourth-place finish, the best in program history. Yee led the team and was fifth of all players in batting at the Olympics. In fact, she had the highest batting average (.348) of any non-Team USA player.

Three members of the 2008 went on to play in the National Pro Fastpitch League. Savannah Brown was taken in the first round, fifth overall by the Rockford Thunder. Aileen Morales was a second-round selection (10th overall) by the Chicago Bandits, while Brittany Barnes was picked in the fourth round (23rd overall) by the Akron Racers. In addition, Whitney Humphreys spent the summer playing professionally in the Netherlands.

As a first-year head coach in 2007, Perkins led Georgia Tech to its sixth consecutive NCAA Tournament. The Yellow Jackets shattered several Atlantic Coast Conference offensive records and made their third appearance of the last four years in the ACC Championship Game.

Amongst the dozen or so accomplishments under the direction of Perkins in 2007 were 96 home runs, surpassing the school-record 75 in 2006. That mark led the nation and finished as the ninth-best all-time total in NCAA history. The Jackets set a new ACC record with 451 runs scored, tied for 11th-best all-time in NCAA history. It also went on to set new league season records in batting average (.322), total bases (1,027), RBI (416) and slugging percentage (.536). The Yellow Jackets tallied eight wins over top 25 opponents, including two over College World Series participants Baylor and DePaul. Perkins also led the Jackets to a school first-sweeping her former employer Georgia in a doubleheader.

Another first for the softball program was two All-Americans in the same year. Senior Caitlin Lever became just the second Jacket to garner first team accolades, after setting a new single-season Tech record with 94 hits. She won the ACC batting crown with a .452 mark and signed to play professional softball with the Chicago Bandits. Junior Aileen Morales had her finest season as a Jacket, earning third team All-America honors. The shortstop from Columbus, Ga., hit .339, with an ACC record 73 runs scored and finished second in the league with 34 stolen bases.

Perkins' banner first season in Atlanta also saw a league-high six All-ACC Academic picks, an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American and four, first-team All-ACC selections.

Prior to arriving at Tech, Perkins spent six seasons at the University of Georgia where she helped build a strong program that was ranked in the Top 10 the last four years. The team made five straight NCAA appearances, including a Super Regional berth in 2005, won two Southeastern Conference titles and posted a 313-104 record. Perkins joined the Georgia staff for the 2001 season and was promoted to associate head coach in July of 2004. She previously spent two seasons (1999-2000) as an assistant coach at Southern Mississippi, where the Eagles made consecutive College World Series appearances and finished third in 2000, falling to UCLA 6-0 in the semifinals. Perkins has twice been part of a coaching staff that was honored as the National Fastpitch Coaches' Association (NFCA) regional coaching staff of the year, at Southern Mississippi in 1999 and at Georgia in 2003.

Perkins was a standout player at Nicholls State, where she was a first-team All-Southland Conference shortstop as well as an Academic All-Conference student-athlete. She was named ENTERGY Corporation's Louisiana Female Athlete of the Year and led the Colonels to their first ever NCAA Regional appearance. In her senior year, Nicholls State climbed to as high as No. 14 in the NFCA/USA Today rankings and finished with a record of 56-9. Perkins batted .357 that season and became one of two athletes in Nicholls State history to play on three Southland Conference championship teams.

Perkins, 35, is a native of Sarasota, Fla., where she attended Riverview High School.

The former Sharon Brander earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from Nicholls State (La.) in May of 1996 and was married on July 26, 1997, to Cris Perkins. Cris and Sharon have two children: Katie, who turned eight on Oct. 17th, and Nicholas who will turn five on March 13th. They reside in Suwanee, Ga.