Jessie Harper

Clemson softball head coach John Rittman announced the addition of former Arizona Wildcat standout Jessie Harper as a volunteer assistant to his coaching staff for the 2022-23 season. She was elevated to full-time assistant coach on July 10, 2023.

During the 2024 campaign, Harper helped the Tigers to a 35-19 overall record. Working primarily with the outfielders, Harper guided senior McKenzie Clark to her second NFCA All-Region selection and a Second Team All-ACC. She helped the centerfielder to one of her best seasons at the plate with a .365 average that included 10 home runs, eight doubles and four triples. In total, Harper helped Clemson record the most NFCA All-Region (3) and All-ACC honorees (6) in the program’s short history. Offensively, with Harper’s help, the Tigers set program marks in triples (15), sac flies (25) and sac hits (18). During its postseason run, Clemson won its sixth ACC Tournament game in program history with an 8-1 victory against Virginia and won the ninth NCAA Tournament game with an 8-0 run-rule win against USC Upstate.

Harper joined the Tiger staff after she served as Arizona’s graduate assistant for the 2022 season, helping guide the Wildcats to a Women’s College World Series appearance. Her stint with the Wildcat coaching staff came after an accomplished playing career for the squad and after being drafted to play in the Athletes Unlimited professional league for the WFP Pride.

During her collegiate career, Harper excelled on the field being named a three-time All-American at two different positions (first base and shortstop), including being a 2017 first-team selection. She was a four-time All-Pac-12 First Team and NFCA West Region selection and concluded her career tied for first in Arizona history and third all-time in the NCAA with 92 home runs. She led the Pac-12 in homers in 2019 (29) and 2020 (10) and led the NCAA in 2019 to become the 10^th Wildcat to lead the country in homers and first to do so since 2009.

She led the Wildcats to the Women’s College World Series as a student-athlete in both 2019 and 2021 and to Super Regionals during her freshman (2017) and sophomore (2018) campaigns. She finished eighth in Arizona’s history in career slugging percentage (.744) and finished sixth with 255 RBI. Off the field, she was an Academic All-American and two-time Academic All-District selection as well as the 2021 Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year. She was a Senior CLASS Award Finalist in 2021 and was a two-time Pac-12 All-Academic honoree.

The Stevenson Ranch, California native graduated with a degree in sociology in 2020 before completing her master’s in educational leadership in 2022.