Remembering Donna Newberry

A coach, a mentor, and a friend are just a few ways those who knew Donna Newberry would describe her.

She passed away on November 11th after battling breast cancer for the third time. She was 58-years-old. Newberry was the softball coach for Muskingum University and had won more than 900 games.

"Last year when she got diagnosed, you know she had one request to President Steele and she wanted to keep me on board I think it’s important for a program with our tradition to have someone from within carry it on," said Kari Hoying.

Hoying says her memories of Donna go beyond the field.

"She’s a mentor, a leader, a teacher, a coach, a christian, but I think most importantly at the end of the day she’s a mother figure to almost all of the alumni in the program."

Players say she had a tough-love style of coaching, but it has made them into the adults they are today.

"Random days out in the field where you know it’s hot out she’s been working us so hard and we can’t get one thing right and we just keep doing it over and over again, she never let us quit ever," said Heather Fields who played softball from 2004-2008.

"Today you see them come back and all of them love her and respect her and appreciate everything she did for them because it’s carried over in life and everything that they do now," said Muskingum Alumni Aaron Spragg.

Newberry’s funeral will be held on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Church of Christ in New Concord. She will be buried as Sunset Memory Gardens in Parkersburg, West Virginia.