Kathy Kroupa finished her ninth season as Susquehanna University's head softball coach in 2011, and Kroupa and her assistants earned the Landmark Conference Coaching Staff of the Year award for the second straight year in 2010.

She has posted a 178-126-1 record during her tenure at Susquehanna, including winning seasons in seven out of the last eight years and a school-record 34-win campaign in 2010 (34-13).

The 2010 season brought SU an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III championships after a second straight runner-up performance in the Landmark playoffs. The Crusaders went 2-2 in the NCAA tournament in its first-ever national appearance.

A native of Weston, Conn., Kroupa was a four-year starter at first base for Gettysburg College from 1992 to 1995, earning first-team Centennial Conference honors as a senior. She also started at goalkeeper for the Gettysburg women's soccer team and still holds school records for career wins (44), shutouts (26), save percentage (.842), saves (420) and saves per game (6.46).

She served as head softball coach at Rosemont College during the 1997 and 1998 seasons before becoming head coach at Franklin & Marshall College in the fall of 1998.

Kroupa improved Rosemont's 1-20 record in 1997 to a 23-13 record the very next year.

In three seasons at Franklin & Marshall, she posted a 38-46 record before stepping down in July 2001.

In addition to her softball duties, Kroupa was the head women's soccer coach at SU froom 2006-10, leading the school to another Landmark Coaching Staff of the Year award in 2009.

She also serves as Susquehanna Athletics' Senior Woman Administrator, an advocate for the university's Sexual Assault Student Support Program, a member of SU's Bias Response and Education Team and a coordinator for the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program.

After graduating from Gettysburg in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in psychology, Kroupa earned a master's degree in counseling psychology from Radford University in 1998.

Jackie Klahold has been named as an assistant softball coach for the 2012 season after serving as an assistant at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. for the past season. Under her guidance, the Gaels won the 2011 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship.

A four year starter at Division I Florida Atlantic, she was part of a team that won four Atlantic Sun Conference titles (1997-2000) and made two NCAA Regional Appearances (1999, 2000). She was named to the Atlantic Sun All-Conference Team twice (1999, 2000) and All-Tournament twice (1997, 2000). Klahold was also named to the Stratford Brakettes Northeast Seaboard Conference All-Tournament Team in 1998.

Her coaching career began at Berwick High School, where she was a volunteer assistant in 2007. Jackie’s first head coaching position was at Crestwood High in Mountain Top, Pa. from 2007 to 2010, where she led the Comets to three consecutive PIAA District 2 Class 3A Quarterfinals (2008-2010).

She is a 2000 graduate of Florida Atlantic with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Print and Media Communications and a 2009 Summa Cum Laude graduate of Wilkes, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education.

Klahold currently resides in Berwick, Pa.

Tara Emery was a third-year assistant softball coach for the Crusaders in 2011.

Emery played softball at NCAA Division II Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania from 2005 to 2007. She graduated from Bloomsburg in 2008 with a bachelor's degree in communication studies.

In 2005, she helped Bloomsburg to a Mid-Atlantic Region championship and a tie for fifth place nationally. She led the team with a .408 batting average that season, as the Huskies posted a 45-10 record. She registered a batting average of .361 and a fielding percentage of .917 during her career. Emery has instructed at several hitting clinics conducted by Bloomsburg. She resides in Sunbury, Pa.

Luke Wesneski will enter his second season as an assistant coach with the Susquehanna softball team in 2012 after spending eight seasons as a high school head softball coach at both Canton High School and Williamsport High Schools. Under his guidance, those teams combined for one District IV championship, two runner up finishes, a league championship and appearances in two state tournaments.

Wesneski also managed and played competitive men's fast pitch for 10 years. He has worked as an instructor at hitting clinics and camps and developed and managed two different ASA organizations.

Wesneski hold bachelors degrees from Lycoming College and Lock Haven University and a Masters degree from Wilkes University. He is currently employed by Susquehanna as an academic specialist and resides in Williamsport, Pa.