Lady Panthers' Head Coach, Lawanda Pearson

Lawanda Pearson enters her fourth year as the Head Coach of Clark Atlanta University Fast-Pitch Softball. Coach Pearson also enters her second year as that Athletic Department's Academic Advisor. Pearson is elated to have more time to devote to two of her passions, academics and softball.

After coaching softball for two years at Division I-A Morris Brown College, Pearson began her coaching duties of the CAU Lady Panther Softball Team in November 2003. In her first season, she led the 2004 Lady Panthers to an 18-24 record.

In 2005, the Lady Panthers finished with an overall record of 22-32 and placed third in the SIAC Conference (East). Coach Pearson was named the 2005 SIAC Coach of the Year.

In 2006, Coach Pearson battled the foes of the Conference with an almost entirely new group of young ladies composed of mostly freshmen and sophomores. The young squad finished with an 18-35 record. Pearson is also proud of the team's academic achievement when they finished tops among all other intercollegiate programs at CAU with a collective 3.2 grade point average.

Over the summer, Coach Pearson provided the team with what she called a "challenging excursion for competitiveness" by taking the team on its first international trip to Kingston, Jamaica, for a softball tournament. The team rallied under very different playing conditions to win first place in the tournament against teams from Jamaica, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.

Pearson is a native of Camden County, Georgia. As a player, she began her softball career in 1986 and participated in the Dixie Debs Fast-Pitch World Series as a representative of the State of Georgia. This was Georgia's first entry into the prestigious tournament. Pearson went on to participate in four consecutive Dixie Debs World Series as a pitcher and utility player.

Coach Pearson received her Bachelor of Science degree from Morris Brown College in 1995 and her Master of Sports Health Science degree from Life University in 2001. She is the mother of a beautiful daughter, Tessence Pearson. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.