WEATHERFORD, Texas -- Weatherford College has hired Dottie Cupp as the school's first softball coach, athletic director Steven Garippa said Thursday.

The school's board of trustees voted in June to add softball to the athletic program. Cupp will spend

the 2010-11 academic year teaching and recruiting, with the first group of players on campus in the fall of 2011.

After a semesterof fall scrimmages, the Lady Coyote softball team will play its first official games in the spring of 2012.

"She hasexperience as a recruiting coordinator, softball skills camp director, pitching coach, and still holds several impressive records from her playing days at the University of Central Florida," Garippa said.

Cupp spent the past two years as an assistant softball coach at Towson University in the Baltimore area.

The native of Milton, Fla., was head softball coach at Polk Community College in Winter Haven, Fla., for three years before her stint at Towson.

Under Cupp, Polk CC advanced to the Region 8 Tournament in 2008.

She also served as an assistant coach at the University of North Florida.

Cupp playedtwo years at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Fla., where she was co-pitcher of the year as a sophomore and a two-time first team Louisville Slugger All-American.

She moved on to Central Florida, where she holds the school record for career shutouts (20). She earned all-conference honors in all four years of college softball, along with all-region honors as a freshman, sophomore and junior.

"While theapplicant pool was very strong, I feel that Coach Cupp will bring a focused intensity and compassion to building our new softball program," Garippa said.

Cupp said she is "very excited" about the opportunity at Weatherford College.

"I'm especially excited to start a new program. I was one of the first seniors at Central Florida, so I've been in the situation as a player and now I'll have the opportunity to do it as a coach. Texas has a lot of softball talent, so I'm ready get started recruiting and building the program."

She will also teach in WC's kinesiology department. She holds a bachelor's degree in business from UCF and a master's degree in kinesiology from Texas Woman's University.