Georgia Southern University Athletics

Heather Gelbard begins her first season as an assistant coach for Georgia Southern softball in the Fall of 2021. She joins the Eagles after serving as a volunteer assistant coach at South Carolina for the last two seasons, and Gelbard will serve as the Eagles' hitting coach.

A former All-ACC and Academic All-American student-athlete at NC State, Gelbard began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Barry University in 2007-09, helping the Bucs to a DII World Series berth in 2008. She was an assistant coach at FAU from 2010-16, then a head coach at UMBC from 2017-18. Gelbard served as the interim head coach at FIU for a season before joining the Gamecocks staff.

Gelbard graduated from NC State with her bachelor's degree in psychology in 2007 and she is the all-time hits leader for the Wolfpack while still ranking in the Top 10 in 15 different career offensive categories. She earned her master's degree in exercise science, with a concentration in sports psychology, from Barry in 2009.