Forney’s Crabtree Joins Softball Staff
July 6, 2009

Former Forney High School head softball coach Cassie Crabtree has been named as the new assistant coach for The University of Texas at Tyler softball team.

Crabtree will take over the position from Christy Shipley-Gipson who left the UT Tyler staff at the end of June to pursue a full-time career in nursing.

“We knew Coach Gipson would only be with us for a limited amount of time while working on her nursing degree, but we are grateful for the time we had with her,” said head coach Mike Reed. “Coach Gipson put her heart and soul into this program and I have no doubt we are better team today because of her hard work and sacrifice.”

Despite no longer serving in a full-time capacity, Gipson and her husband, Coby, will continue to serve the team as volunteer assistants.

Prior to coming to UT Tyler, Crabtree spent three seasons as the head coach at Forney High School and one season as the head coach at Kaufman High School.

During her four years as a head coach in the high school ranks, Crabtree accumulated an outstanding record of 126-36 and was named as the District 15-4A Coach of the Year for each of her three years at Forney.

“We are thrilled to have a person of Coach Crabtree’s caliber join our staff. She is a proven winner and is someone who can come in and have an immediate impact on our team,” said Reed.

Crabtree’s main duties at UT Tyler will be working with the pitchers and recruiting.

“I am very excited to come to UT Tyler,” said Crabtree. “Coach Reed and the rest of the staff have done an excellent job in building one of the nation’s premier Division III programs in a short of amount of time and I look forward to helping take the team to the next level.”

Crabtree holds a B.S in Health, Kinesiology and Recreation from Southern Arkansas University and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Kinesiology with an emphasis in coaching from Texas Woman’s University.

During her tenure at SAU, Crabtree was a four-time All-Gulf South Conference selection, a two-time All-Region selection, a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District selection and a two-time National Fastpitch Coaches Association Scholar-Athlete.

Off the field at SAU, Crabtree was equally as successful. She was a member of the Academic Honor Roll and Dean’s List for most her academic career and served as president of the Southern Arkansas Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Crabtree officially began her tenure as assistant coach on July 1.

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