Mandy Burford enters her third season as the head coach of the Samford softball team. Burford was promoted to head coach in 2012 after serving as an assistant coach in 2011.
At the end of the 2013 season, Burford guided the team to one of the most succesful conference tournament runs in Samford history. The ninth-seeded Bulldogs advanced all the way to the SoCon semifinals, outscoring their first four opponents 19-3. Sophomore pitcher Shelby Scott and senior outfielder Kayla Shaffer were both named to the All-Tournament team. Samford is the only ninth-seed in SoCon history to advance to the semifinals.
During the 2013 season, Samford was the only team in the conference to throw two no-hitters, as Mollie Hanson downed UNCG on March 9 before Shelby Scott did the same to Elon on April 20. Both pitchers were named SoCon Pitcher of the Week following their performances and they were the first no-hitters at Samford since 2006.
The Bulldogs have earned a spot on the SoCon All-Freshman team in both seasons under Burford as well, with Madison Dickey in 2011 and Megan Dowdy in 2012.
Prior to coming to Samford, Burford spent the previous two seasons as an assistant coach at Birmingham-Southern. At BSC, Burford helped lead the Panthers to a combined record of 57-14 in her two seasons on the coaching staff. In 2009, BSC posted an impressive record of 32-5, breaking 13 team records, including the record for number of wins.
Burford served as radio color analyst for Alabama softball before joining the BSC softball program. As a graduate student at Alabama, Burford assisted the Crimson Tide Sports Marketing department, and also served on the event management team for the Alabama/Auburn Shoot for Life project, sponsored by The University of Alabama and the Cancer Wellness Foundation of Central Alabama.
As a player for the Crimson Tide, Burford was team captain in 2007, batting .325. She helped lead Alabama to the Women's College World Series in both 2005 and 2006, as well as Regional and Super Regional appearances in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. She helped Alabama to the Southeastern Conference title in 2006, was named Tournament MVP of the Bama Bash in 2007 and received Academic All-SEC honors in 2004 and 2005.
Burford, a native of Anniston, Ala., graduated with a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Alabama in 2007. She also received her Master of Science in marketing in May 2008, also from UA.
