Barry University Athletics

Sean Cotter was hired in the fall of 2017 as the eighth head coach of Barry University's softball program.

Bringing 17 years of collegiate coaching experience at every level of the NCAA to Barry, Cotter owns an overall head coaching record of 565-479-2, with stops at Teikyo-Post, Plattsburg State, and Massachusetts-Lowell in addition to the Bucs.

Rising to the challenges faced in a schedule that featured 18 contests against nine teams that advanced to the NCAA Division II National Tournament, the 2024 campaign saw the Bucs record their most wins since 2013 behind a 34-18 record which led to Cotter earning his first SSC Coach of the Year award. On the field, Maci Barnhart, Alexis Toledo and Caroline Figueroa all earned All-SSC accolades, with Barnhart and Toledo both receiving All-Region attention. 

Defensively, Barry recorded the second-highest fielding percentage within the conference (.972) and turned the third-most double plays (17) while Paige White led the conference with 15 doubles.

The 2024 team etched its name in program history after recording back-to-back sweeps of the SSC weekly awards via Barnhart and Figueroa (April 22) followed by Barnahrt and Mac Stone-Folmar (April 29), marking the first time the Bucs have accomplished the feat.

Prior to the season starting, Cotter took the team on a preseason trip to Panama. They were the third team in Barry University history to travel abroad and the first women's team to do so.

The Buccaneers defended their home field well during the 2023 season, winning 21 contests at Buccaneer Softball Field while going 24-30 overall. Barnhart received national recognition with a pair of NFCA Pitcher of the Week nods, leading to Second-Team All-SSC honors after boasting the second-most strikeouts (162), third-most shutouts (seven) and the fourth-best strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.60) within the conference.

In the classroom, Barry had 13 student-athletes earn NFCA All-America Scholar Athlete honors.

The Bucs posted their first winning season in six years in 2022, going 29-22. They were led by the pitching duo of Maci Barnhart and Cassandra Lee, who both earned Second-Team All-Conference honors. Barnhart led the league in innings pitched and strikeouts, while both pitcher tossed no-hitters, the first for the Bucs since 2015. Lee's no-no coincided with career win No. 500 for Coach Cotter.

Coach Cotter talks to us after getting his 500th career win! #BarryUsoftball pic.twitter.com/2sBNrXO0jk

— Barry University Softball (@BarryUSoftball) March 24, 2022

It was another banner year in the classroom, as 14 more Bucs earned NFCA Scholar All-America.

The team played an abbreviated schedule in 2021, facing only conference foes and going 11-14 overall. Payton Germer was the First-Team catcher on the All-SSC squad, while Taylor Checkley made the Second-Team as an outfielder. Checkley was again the Female Scholar-Athlete for the department, and became the first Buccaneer softball player since Dee Espinosa in 2016 to be named Academic All-America. She led a 14-player contingent to earn NFCA Scholar All-America.

The 2020 season was cut short due to the global pandemic, and no athletic awards were presented. Taylor Checkley earned Barry's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Though the Bucs went just 13-40 in 2019, Lyndsey Duncan was named to the All-SSC Second-Team as an outfielder. She and five others earned NFCA Scholar All-America.

In his first season in 2018, he led the Bucs to a 19-26 record. The Bucs won five straight games to begin March, and then reeled off seven more victories during an extended Spring Break trip in Clermont, Fla., to creep two games over .500.  Catcher Madison VonHagel was named Second-Team All-South Region and First-Team All-Sunshine State Conference. Nine Buccaneers received National Fastpitch Coaches Association Scholar All-American honors, including four-time recipient Alayna Gallagher, who also was selected for the second straight year as Barry's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. 

Cotter came to the Buccaneers from Sunshine State Conference foe Florida Tech, where he spent three years as associate head coach. The Panthers went 103-60 during his tenure, including 42-30 in the SSC. In 2016, they set a school record for winning percentage, going 39-15 (.722).

Prior to Tech, he spent five seasons at UMass Lowell, guiding the River Hawks to a 130-122-1 mark and helping them transition from D-II to NCAA Division I. He was the head coach at Plattsburgh State for 10 years going 258-162-1. He led the Cardinals to a fourth-place finish in the D-III Championship in 2007.

He has guided teams to four NCAA Tournament appearances and helped them set records for most wins and winning percentage several times.

He has mentored three All-Americans and 32 All-Region Players, including two-time SUNYAC Pitcher of the Year Stephanie Zweig at Plattsburgh and the Northeast-10 Player of the Year Elyssa Boris at UMass-Lowell.

Additionally, his players have captured 33 NFCA Scholar All-America awards.

He graduated in 1997 from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor of arts in history. He continued at UConn to earn his master's in counseling psychology in 1999.

Active in the NFCA and NCAA, he has been a member of the NFCA Board of Directors, the Top-25 Committee at all three levels, and the D-III All-America Committee. He was a member of the regional advisory committee in D-III for four years.