You could use a lot of adjectives to describe Cat Clifford‘s 2021.
There’s “tumultuous”, even “frightening”. A health scare at the beginning of the year led to brain surgery just weeks before the softball season was set to begin.
You could definitely choose “resilient”. Just weeks after that same surgery, Clifford was back on the softball field. While mindful of her need to recover, returning to the diamond was therapeutic, in a way.
Throw in a healthy dose of “euphoric”. An assistant coach for the Manhattan softball program at the time, Clifford helped shepherd the Jaspers to an MAAC tournament title and an NCAA tournament berth – the program’s first NCAA postseason appearance since 1999 – where they played in the Fayetteville Regional.
And let’s not forget “monumental”. Just weeks after the Jaspers clinched their first postseason berth this century, longtime head coach Tom Pardalis retired and handed the reins of the program to Clifford. After six years as an assistant with the program, she took on the title of Interim Head Coach.
Clifford was the program’s leader right away, but it wasn’t until just this week, on January 12th, that she dropped the “interim” tag for good. Now, she’s set to lead Manhattan in defense of their conference championship from a year ago. Now nearly a decade into her coaching career, the on-field success is important, but not the only priority for Clifford in her role.
“I love what I do very much. I wouldn’t want to do anything else,” Clifford added. “I love watching our kids grow, and my favorite part of coaching is hearing about their successes off the field. We have alumni that have gotten into grad school, into medical school, and that have gotten engaged and married. Their successes off the field – even acing big tests, scoring an internship – are really why I do what I do.”
Success has followed Clifford at every step of her journey within the game of softball. As a player at Mount St. Mary’s, she was a fixture at third base for the Mountaineers and finished her career in the top ten in five statistical categories in the program’s record book. Her 172 games played and 17 career home runs were among those marks. After her playing days ended, she began coaching and was part of the conference Coaching Staff of the Year at Susquehanna University in 2015.
From there, she joined the Jaspers’ staff. While she dutifully served on staff at Manhattan, even initially serving in a part-time role, Clifford was constantly picking up knowledge and information and filing it away. It might come in handy, after all, when she earned a head coaching position one day.
Learning under Pardalis is something that Clifford notes as a major positive in her coaching path. Taking over the program that Pardalis built in a dozen years as head coach, one of Clifford’s stated goals as head coach is to honor the legacy of her retired mentor.
“I didn’t necessarily expect to be a head coach this soon,” Clifford said. “But I really give a lot of credit to Tom and how he has prepared me for this role… the way this program has been run, the way he knows the program, the way he is able to talk to players on the west coast and tell them about [Manhattan] and help them fall in love with it; I want to keep doing that, keep following the groundwork he’s laid. My plans for how we run the program and what we do haven’t changed; I’m still going to do the things that we’ve built the program on.”
After persevering through the challenges and enjoying the achievements that last year brought with it, Clifford’s outlook on life and on softball centers on little things making a big difference. “This was an absolutely wild year, and when I was recovering at the very beginning of the year, there were times that I wasn’t sure I was going to make it back at all… Just being able to be at practice, at games, and to be present with our team was such a huge milestone for me. The success that we had and the wins were just added onto that. Being around our team and our players was really what made the difference.”
