Jen Starek

Head Coach
Second Season
Record at UNH: 26-19
Overall Record: 69-79
Springfield BS 2001, MS 2003

Jen Starek enters her second season as head coach of the Chargers’ softball program in 2008.  She took over as UNH's head coach in the summer of 2006, and led the Chargers to a 26-19 record in her first season.

UNH found success early in the 2007 season, rising as high as 17th in the NFCA national coaches' poll after posting a 9-1 record at the Rebel Spring Games in Florida.  Despite losing their number two pitcher for the year after a preseason injury, UNH finished the year 10-10 in East Coast Conference play and advanced to the league's post-season tournament.  Both Nicole Downs and Breanne Gleason earned First Team All-Northeast Region honors after earning all-conference recognition.

Prior to her arrival at UNH, Starek spent the previous two years as head softball and field hockey coach at Simmons College in Boston. The Sharks’ 2006 softball team won the Colleges of the Fenway Tournament and scored an opening-round win in the Great Northeast Atlantic Conference (GNAC) Playoffs. The team posted a 19-19 record overall, including wins in seven of the team’s last nine games, to improve upon a 17-22 mark from 2005.

She was also the co-head coach of Pressure Softball’s 16 & under team during the last two years.

Previously, Starek has been head softball coach, assistant athletic director and adjunct professor of sports management at Mount Ida College (2003-04). She was an assistant softball coach at her alma mater Springfield College from 2001-03, and in 2003 the team went 33-12 overall, their second-highest win total in the last 17 years.

“Jen brings a wealth of experience to UNH,” said UNH Director of Athletics Deborah Chin upon Starek's hiring. “She is an experienced head coach that also has athletic training and strength & conditioning credentials, and we are very pleased to have her take over the Charger softball program.”

Starek graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in athletic training from Springfield College in 2001, and earned an MS in athletic administration there in 2003.

Starek was a standout softball and field hockey player at Springfield. As a catcher/outfielder in softball, she was twice a NEWMAC First Team All-Conference selection (2000, 2001), NFCA All-New England Second Team (2001), and NEISCA Division III second team All-Star (1999). The Pride won their first-ever NEWMAC Tournament in 2000, advancing to the NCAA Tournament with a 30-17-1 record. The following season as a senior, Starek led Springfield to a 41-10 record, their highest win total in at least 17 years.

Starek led the Pride field hockey team to NEWMAC titles 1998, 1999 and 2000. They advanced to the national championship game in 2000, her final season. She is a NATA-certified athletic trainer and a NSCA certified strength & conditioning coach.

Starek is a native of Holliston, Mass., and currently resides in West Haven, Conn.