Montclair State University Athletics

Nicole Degenhardt enters her second season as the Head Softball Coach for the Red Hawks.

Degenhardt joined Montclair State in 2024 as the Interim Head Coach before becoming the full-time Head Coach. After a challenging first season in 2024, Nicole got the Red Hawks back on track in 2025. She coached the team to a 24-17 overall record and a 9-9 NJAC record that saw them return to the NJAC playoffs for the first time in three years, where they defeated Stockton, 6-4 to win their first playoff game since 2019. 

In eight seasons in the Lions dugout, Degenhardt led GCU to three CACC regular season championships, two CACC Tournament Championships, and four appearances in the NCAA Division II East Region Tournament. 

The three-time CACC Coach of the Year compiled a roster consisting of eight All-CACC players in 2021 while adding four NFCA All-Region players, seven D2SIDA All-Region selections, and an NFCA First-Team All-American in Alyssa Herrera.

In 2021, Georgian Court University, for the second time in program history (2009), came within one win of its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II Softball Championship Elite Eight as the #22 nationally-ranked Lions fell to Saint Anselm College in the NCAA East Regional finals. 
Georgian Court, with a 38-6 overall record, collected the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference regular-season crown and its first CACC Championship Tournament title since 2009.

For just the second time in program history, Georgian Court made it three consecutive years advancing to the NCAA Tournament. With 39 wins in 2023, the Lions won 38 or more games three straight years for the first time ever. Kaitlyn Stufft earned D2CCA All-American honors while Stufft, Adriana Mungo and Jayda Jones made the All-Region Team. 

Degenhardt has been named Coach of the Year three times. She's coached two CACC Players of the Year in Samantha Reilly (2018) and Kaitlyn Stufft (2022), two CACC Pitchers of the Year in Samantha Fohrman (2021) and Mikayla Gilgert (2022) and the 2018 Rookie of the Year in Caitlin Hughes. She's been in the dugout for 29 all-CACC performances overall with 17 making the First Team and 12 on the Second Team. She's also coaches five All-American student-athletes and 29 have made the All-Region team. 

Degenhardt, a former three-sport athlete at Felician, earned All-CACC honors in softball and volleyball before graduating in 2011 with a degree in Mathematics Education/Special Education. She earned induction into the school's Athletic Hall-of-Fame in 2017.

Upon graduation, the Secaucus, New Jersey native taught high school and middle school mathematics in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey before accepting the position of  Associate Athletic Director/Recruiting Coordinator at NCAA Division III College of Saint Elizabeth. 

Degenhardt led the College of Saint Elizabeth softball team from 2012-15. The former North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Coach of the Year also served as the floor general of the Saint Elizabeth women's basketball team (2011-15).