COACHING STAFF

Shannon Pivovar | Assistant Coach

Shannon Pivovar was named an assistant softball coach in the summer of 2023 following five seasons as the head coach at University of Sioux Falls. Pivovar won at least 23 games in four full seasons at Sioux Falls and 109 games overall. Her team’s 2020 season was shortened due to the pandemic. The Cougars had nine all-NSIC honors in those four seasons including six first-team honorees. The program also combined for more than 200 hours of community service work each season.

Pivovar was an assistant coach at South Dakota State for four seasons from 2015-18 and led the program to its first NCAA Division I postseason appearance when the Jacks competed in the National Invitational Softball Championship in 2018. Pivovar served as a graduate assistant coach at Wayne State in 2014.

Pivovar hails from Omaha, Nebraska, and shined collegiately at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri. She was a three-time all-conference honoree, an all-region performer in 2008, and was named 2010 Missouri Western Female Student-Athlete of the Year.

Pivovar graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in sports management. She is nearing completion of a master’s degree from Wayne State. Pivovar has served as a sports information director at Creighton, coached at Ralston and Marion High Schools in Omaha, and was a program coach for Nebraska Fury Fast Pitch Softball.

Jessica Rogers | Assistant Coach

South Dakota alumna Jessica Rogers, a 2019 graduate and one of the best power hitters in program history, returned to Vermillion and joined the Coyote coaching staff in the summer of 2022. Rogers was a four-year starter who earned first-team all-Summit honors in three consecutive seasons as a catcher and was an all-region honoree in 2018 when she hit .376 with 15 home runs and 45 RBIs. Rogers finished with the third-most home runs (34) and fifth-most RBIs (129) in program history.

Rogers played her freshman season under coach Amy Klyse before competing the next three years for coach Robert Wagner. She made more than 200 starts at USD, boasts a .309 lifetime average and was part of one of the most successful Coyote teams as a senior in 2019. That squad won 33 games, came within one win of qualifying for the NCAA tournament, and was the first USD team to compete in the postseason at the Division I level.

After graduating with a degree in criminal justice, Rogers served as a volunteer coach for the Nebraska Edge U16 team. She also offered private softball lessons. Rogers was a communications specialist for the Nebraska State Patrol for 1.5 years and served one year as a highway traffic operations center operator for the Nebraska Department of Transportation before returning to Vermillion.