Pro News: Chattanooga Steam Fastpitch Team Announced… More Details To Come Soon

Connect Sports, owned and operated by Jill and Jeremy Higdon, have announced the creation of a new professional fastpitch team to compete in 2024.

Jeremy Higdon told Extra Inning Softball today that the details for the launch of the Steam has been under development going back to the Fall of 2022.

“It’s been in the works for over a year,” he said, but when Marty McDaniel, our head coach, signed his contract last week, so I guess that’s when it got finalized.”

McDaniel, a 20-year coach at the NCAA DI at the University of Tennessee and Georgia Tech, was a key part of the Volunteers success during his time at Tennessee where he helped lead the team to seven Women’s College World Series appearances and two SEC tournament titles. He recently became the head coach at Roane State in Tennessee.

McDaniel coached 34 NFCA All-Americans, 60 NFCA all-Region selections and 70 all-SEC or all-freshman selections at Tennessee. Among his 10 all-SEC pitchers are Olympic silver medalist, four-time first team all-American and eight-time pro all-star Monica Abbott, and two-time all-American and three-time all-SEC selection Ellen Renfroe.

Brandon Carr, an assistant at Chattanooga State and the Fury Platinum Softball pitching development coach and owner of The Softball Sanctuary in Knoxville, will serve as Assistant Coach.

He has helped develop and send students to over 65 college programs and has coached several prep and DI All-Americans.

The General Manager for the Steam will be Donald Pickett, who has served as a collegiate coach for two decades including 15 years as a head coach at Northwestern State Univ. of Louisiana where he led the Demons to 390 wins including Southland Conference Tourney titles in 2013 and 2014.

The roster of players will be announced soon, as early as this week, but the tentative schedule for Steam includes games beginning on June 20, 2024 and going through the end of July.

Jerry Higdon explained that the team will play an assortment of other pro teams, international teams and collegiate all-star teams.

“We will definitely play multiple series against the FL Vibe,” he confirmed today, “We are also in talks with some national teams and we’ll work to find an avenue to play other pro teams if possible.”

The Chattanooga Steam announcement can be found on the Connect Sports website or by clicking HERE.

Extra Inning Softball will publish the team roster when it is finalized and have more on the semi-pro women’s fastpitch program as details are released.

—Brentt Eads/Extra Inning Softball