CAMP DIRECTORS

Dave Canan is entering his 21st season as the head softball coach Babson College in 2019-2020. The winningest coach in program history, Canan boasts an overall mark of 498-333-1 (.599), and has guided the Beavers to 23 or more victories 14 times, which includes 4 seasons of 30 or more wins. He has led the Beavers to three NEWMAC Tournament titles and four NCAA Tournament appearances, including the program’s first Super Regional berth in 2017.

Under Canan’s leadership, Babson captured its first NEWMAC championship and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2005 on the way to recording a single-season school-record 38 victories. The Green and White won its second straight conference title and returned to the national tournament in 2006, and earned another NCAA bid after reaching the NEWMAC Tournament final in 2013.

The Beavers went 33-16 in 2017 and captured the NEWMAC Tournament championship and the NCAA Tournament Babson Regional title as Canan and his assistants were selected as the NFCA New England Coaching Staff of the Year. 

In addition to his softball duties, Canan has served as an assistant women’s basketball coach at Babson since 1998. Now in his 22nd year with the program, the Beavers have amassed 405 wins while winning eight NEWMAC titles and making NCAA Tournament appearances.

A graduate of Boston State College and Northeastern University, Canan taught and coached softball and basketball at Masconomet Regional High School for almost 20 years before taking over as athletics director at Newburyport High School in 1994. While at Newburyport, Canan also coached softball for one season, leading the Clippers to a Cape Ann League title and a berth in the Division II state tournament.

Kelly Bevere is entering her 14th season as the head coach of the Middlebury softball team in 2019-20, leading the team into the NESCAC Tournament for seven of the past nine seasons. In her first season in 2007, the Panthers were much-improved with a 20-win season and an overall record of 21-12. In 2011, Bevere was named the NESCAC Coach of the Year, leading the team to its first NESCAC Championship and NCAA Tournament appearance with a record of 30-8.

The team has enjoyed 20-plus win seasons over six of the last nine years, with a 26-11 mark in 2013. Bevere owns a career record of 257-176-1 over 13 seasons as the team's head coach, recording her 200th victory on April 19, 2016. She also serves as the school’s Director of Compliance.

All 22 of the school’s single-season and career hitting records have come under Bevere’s tutelage, as well as all 10 pitching records. Many of the school marks are held by standouts Jessica Hoffman and Jessica Poracky, who graduated in the spring of 2013 owning nearly all of the school’s records.

Bevere, who earned a degree in psychology from Middlebury in 1999, has spent a significant amount of time coaching at the college. Following her graduation, Bevere remained on campus as a graduate assistant basketball coach for the 1999-2000 season.

She attended Suffolk University Law School and earned her law degree in 2003. Bevere returned to Middlebury in the fall of 2003 to work as an assistant dean of the college and residential systems coordinator. She also served as an assistant women’s basketball for 11 years.

Prior to arriving at Middlebury, Bevere was a two-sport standout at Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, New Hampshire. She was a four-year starter and All-State selection on both the softball and basketball teams, and was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 2002. Bevere was interested in playing softball at Middlebury, but the school did not field a varsity team until the spring of 1998.

During her four years on the basketball team at Middlebury, the Panthers sported a 76-27 record, including an ECAC Championship in 1997. The team also earned two bids to the NCAA Tournament in 1996 and 1998, while taking part in the 1999 ECAC tourney. She played in 102 games at Middlebury, scoring 958 points (9.4 ppg), while pulling down 607 rebounds (6.0 rpg).

Jen Lane enters her 19th season as the head coach of the softball team at Wesleyan in 2019-2020.  She also previously served as an assistant coach for the Cardinals’ field hockey program, and is currently an adjunct professor of physical education at the Wesleyan.

Lane, a two-time NESCAC Coach of the Year (2008, 2010), established a winning culture in 2007, as the group posted its first above-.500 season since 1995 with a 21-15 record and a 9-3 mark in the highly-competitive NESCAC West Division en route to qualifying for the conference playoffs for the first time in program history.

The 2008 version of the Cardinals built off the positive momentum, under Lane’s superb leadership, as the team compiled 21 wins for the second straight year, and finished 10-2 in the NESCAC. The group captured the school’s first-ever NESCAC West title, while finishing as the runner-up during the NESCAC Championship in Middletown, Conn.

Lane has led the Cardinals to a pair of Little Three titles in 2008 and 2013, as her unit claimed the NESCAC West title again in 2009, and then earned the program’s first-ever NESCAC Championship in 2010 en route to qualifying for the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in school history. The 2010 team finished with 24 victories, which is tied for the most in program history. From 2007-10, Wesleyan recorded a total of 83 victories, and compiled a 36-12 record in the NESCAC.

Lane led Wesleyan to a 24-12 season in 2013, as the squad reached its fifth NESCAC Tournament with a 7-5 conference mark, and then the Cardinals posted another winning season in 2016 with a 21-14 overall record.

During the summer, Lane travels throughout New England, and other parts of the country, assessing high school talent. She is the director of the Cardinal Softball School at Wesleyan and co-director of the Northeast Collegiate Softball Academy at Babson College. She also works at various other softball camps around the country.

Since 2005, she has been involved with training for Middletown Little League Softball. She has run clinics for both players and coaches, while getting Wesleyan student-athletes involved in the youth program, serving as volunteer coaches during practices. Lane attends the annual convention for the National Fastpitch Coaches Association, and has achieved the level of Two-Star Master Coach through the NFCA.

Lane has twice been a member of the NCAA Division III New England Region Softball Committee. She served on that committee from 2006-08 and again from 2012-14. 

At Wesleyan, Lane is co-director of the Athletics Advantage program, which connects current Cardinal student-athletes with Wesleyan alumni to set up mentorships. The program also sponsors different career workshops and panels throughout the school year. 

Lane also organizes Wesleyan's annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day Clinic, which is a free multi-sport clinic for area elementary-aged girls.

Before coming to Wesleyan in the summer of 2001, Lane coached at her alma mater, NESCAC and Little Three-rival Amherst College, while earning her master's degree in exercise and sports studies at Smith College. In 1999, she was an assistant with the Amherst softball team before moving into a co-head coach position in 2000 and 2001. She was an assistant with the field hockey program at Amherst for two years as well, including the 1999 season when Amherst finished as the NCAA Division III runner-up.

During her undergraduate years at Amherst, Lane captained both the softball (1997, 1998) and field hockey (1997) teams. As a pitcher, she helped lead Amherst to a No. 16 finish in the country her senior year, and was named to the New England Regional All-Tournament Team. A sweeper in field hockey, Lane played in the Division III North-South All-Star Game in 1997.

Originally from Hatfield, Mass., Lane was a four-year, three-sport (field hockey, basketball and softball) varsity standout at Smith Academy. She is married to Jimmy Lane, Jr. They have four children: Julia, Andrew, and twins, William and Olivia.

 SCHOOLS ATTENDING THIS YEAR

• Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Hamilton, MIT, Smith, Trinity, Tufts, U.S. Coast Guard, Wheaton, Williams