Brianna Cooper joined the Virginia Wesleyan University Athletics staff as the assistant softball coach in July 2022, this will be her third season with the Marlins Softball program.
In the 2024 season, the team posted a 40-10 record and 20-2 in conference play claiming their 18th ODAC Regular season championship and their 15th ODAC Conference Tournament Championship to compete in their 14th NCAA Tournament (11th in a row), making it to their sixth Super Regional in the past seven years making it to the College World Series for the first time since the 2021 season. Eight players received All-Conference honors including Emma Adams selected as ODAC Pitcher of the Year and five Marlins named to the NFCA All-Region team.
She served as the pitching coach during the 2021-2022 season, had a 5 players selected as Landmark Conference Pitcher of the Week, NFCA National Pitcher of the Week, Landmark Conference Pitcher of the Year, and 1st Team All-Region pitcher who broke the school record for strikeouts during a game (18) and had a career-high of 210 strikeouts during her senior season (290 total in her career). She had another pitcher make Landmark Conference 2nd Team and 3rd Team All-Region. The two had a combined Conference ERA .97. During the 2021-2022 season, we were named Landmark Regular Season Champions and Conference Tournament Champions with a Conference Record of 11-1 (25-7 overall). We also received tremendous honors of Landmark Athlete of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, and Coaching Staff of the Year, with 5 athletes on the Conference 1st team and 3 athletes on 2nd team, as well as 4 athletes on the All-Region Team.
Burger had a successful four-year career at Alderson Broaddus University from 2016-2020. The Grand Prairie, Texas native was a utility player as she threw in the circle and also hit at the plate. During her time as a Battler, Burger appeared in 120 games making 104 starts. In her 274 at-bats she recorded 40 runs on 79 hits with 18 doubles and 14 home runs earning a career batting average of .288. In the circle she threw 157 and two-thirds innings pitched for a career ERA of 6.13. In 41 appearances, she garnered 22 starts allowing 229 hits resulting in 157 runs scored, 138 earned, while also walking 71 and striking out 37.
