Laina Holmgren has been an assistant coach at ULM since July 2021.
Holmgren’s primary role is to work with hitters and slappers.
Holmgren comes to ULM after spending three seasons as an assistant coach at George Washington, helping the Colonials to a 37-11 record, Atlantic 10 regular-season and tournament championships and a NCAA Regional appearance in 2021.
GW ranked fourth nationally in scoring (7.0 runs per game), fifth in batting average (.340), eighth in slugging percentage (.560), 15th in doubles per game (1.67) and 18th in home runs per game (1.33). Seven different players hit at least .300 on the season while five players hit .350 or better. The Colonials hit 80 doubles, 64 home runs and 309 RBIs as a team.
Jenna Cone earned her second Atlantic 10 Player of the Year honor in 2021 while also picking up All-Region and All-American honors after hitting .415 with 15 doubles, 17 home runs and 51 RBIs. Sydney Bloomfield led the team with a .443 average.
In the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Cone was hitting .386 with six home runs and 16 RBIs when the season came to an abrupt end.
In Holmgren’s first season with GW, the Colonials won a program-record 44 games en route to a share of their first Atlantic 10 title and an appearance in the National Invitational Softball Championship Liberty Regional.
The historic run was fueled by a nationally ranked offense led by Cone, who hit .381 with 20 home runs and 67 RBIs on the way to being named A-10 Player of the Year and a Softball America Honorable Mention All-American.
The Colonials ranked third in the country in 2019 with a .341 batting average, piling up 582 hits in 64 games, 89 more than the previous program record. GW ranked among the national leaders in doubles per game (1.68, eighth), triples per game (0.31, 21st), on-base percentage (.405, 15th), scoring (6.02, 20th) and slugging percentage (.502, 22nd).
The 2018 graduate of Charleston Southern played two seasons for the Buccaneers after playing her first two seasons at Boise State. She shined in the classroom, garnering the Christenberry Award as a senior, the Big South Conference’s highest academic honor. She also was recognized with an award for having the highest grade-point average among Charleston Southern’s female student-athletes. She posted a perfect 4.0 in each semester before graduating with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a double minor in psychology and natural sciences.
She has served as an instructor for camps at the Packaged Deal and the Softball Performance Workshop in California.
