Former Pirate Valeria Silvestrini Named Florida Tech Head Coach

MELBOURNE, Fla. - Former Armstrong Atlantic State outfielder and assistant coach Valeria Silvestrini has been named the head softball coach at Florida Tech, announced Tuesday by the Sunshine State Conference school. Silvestrini is the seventh head coach in Florida Tech softball history.

As a player for the Pirates in 2004, Silvestrini earned All-PBC honors, hitting .410 - the third-highest single-season average in school history - in leading AASU to the NCAA South Atlantic Regional. After her senior season, she became an assistant coach for new head coach Ted Evans and served two seasons in that capacity.

She has since served as an assistant coach at Charleston Southern and the University of North Florida before she accepted the job at Florida Tech. The Buenos Aires, Argentina, native earned her master's degree in sports medicine from AASU while serving as an assistant coach.

"Val is extremely knowledgeable about softball and is very passionate about the game," AASU head coach Ted Evans said. "She is going to put everything into building her program, and I think she has every quality that it takes to be very successful."

One of the first weekends of the 2010 softball season will feature Silvestrini and the Florida Tech softball squad traveling to Savannah to take on the Pirates on the weekend of February 13.