CLEMSON, S.C. – Clemson softball head coach John Rittman announced the expansion of the Tigers’ staff with the elevation of Jessie Harper to a full-time assistant coach, the elevation of Alyssa Bilodeau to director of player development and the addition of Taylor Roby as a graduate assistant for the upcoming 2023-24 season.
“We are thankful our coaching staff is growing this offseason,” said Rittman. “The change that the NCAA made allowed us to elevate Jessie to an assistant coach role. We are excited to have her in this role, where she can be continuing her current responsibilities with the program and be more involved with recruiting and evaluation of talent. Moving Alyssa into the player development role will allow us to enhance our players away from the playing field as she takes on a role focusing on opponent scouting, player analytics and technology and developing support for student-athlete transition by creating student-specific development and team building programs. We round out our staff with Taylor, who was a dual threat All-American for Louisville this past spring, as our graduate assistant, which gives us the opportunity to have a well-rounded staff ready to step into our fifth season.”
Harper joins the staff full-time after serving as a volunteer assistant working primarily with the outfielders and hitters in 2023. Prior to her time with the Orange and Regalia, she served as Arizona’s graduate assistant where she helped guide the Wildcats to a Women’s College World Series appearance in 2022. Her stint with the Wildcat coaching staff came after an accomplished playing career for the squad. She was a three-time All-American at two different positions (first base and shortstop). Harper led the Wildcats to the WCWS as a student-athlete in both 2019 and 2021 and to Super Regionals during her freshman (2017) and sophomore (2018) campaigns. She concluded her career tied for first in Arizona’s history and third all-time in the NCAA with 92 home runs.
Bilodeau moves into a full-time role with the Tigers after serving as the team’s graduate assistant during the 2022 and 2023 seasons while completing her master’s in athletic leadership. She came to the staff after a standout playing career at Jacksonville University where she became JU’s all-time leader in appearances (151), strikeouts (629) and innings pitched (740.2). She also finished her career second on JU’s career list with 58 wins and third all-time in ERA (2.40). She had a dominant career in the ASUN being named a Second Team All-ASUN selection after leading the ASUN in strikeouts and ERA in 2021.
Roby is the newest addition to the Clemson staff after completing her collegiate playing career in the spring of 2023 with Louisville. A dual threat for the Cardinals, Roby was selected as an NFCA Second Team All-American and All-ACC First Team member in 2023. Also, during her final season at Louisville, she posted a career-best .360 average at the plate with 59 hits including 23 home runs and nine doubles. She finished her career as a three-time NFCA All-Southeast Region Second Team honoree and by posting Louisville’s career (63) and season (23) home run records while finishing third on the ACC’s list for career home runs. Most recently, she spent the summer of 2023 playing professionally with the USSSA Pride.
