There was no break from softball for UMSL Assistant Coach Lauren Lappin this summer. After helping head coach Amanda Scott lead the Tritons to the GLVC Tournament championship and the program's seventh straight NCAA Tournament appearance in May, Lappin packed her bags for Chicago where she spent her summer as head coach of the Bandits, a member of the National Pro Fastpitch (NPF).
 
In her first season at the helm of the program, Lappin directed the team to a record of 38-10 and the NPF regular season title. For her efforts, Lappin, along with her assistants Amber Flores and Lance McMahon, were named the 2019 Coaching Staff of the Year.
 
This summer was Lappin's second with the Bandits after serving as an assistant coach last season.
 
"My second experience with the Bandits was exactly what the first summer told me it would be, in terms of how the organization is run and the type of people that lead the front office," she said. "And in my first summer as a head coach, I could not have had a better group to work with every day. I felt like I was able to settle in and be around people who were driven, focused and bought into the vision we were trying to create."
 
The Bandits finished the regular season with a 38-7 record, which included a string of at least 14 wins in a row on two different occasions, but saw the USSSA Pride record a three-game sweep in the league's best-of-five finals to capture its second straight Cowles Cup.  
 
"We really hit our stride when it mattered most, and although we didn't get the final result we thought we were on trajectory for, we saw some incredible performances that led our group to win a lot of games down the stretch," Lappin said.
 
"The NPF season a grind with a lot of games in a short amount of time and you have a roster full of superstars who are used to playing all the time. The first month is navigating who is going to win spots and how everyone else is going to accept roles. So the way the group was able to come together and then hit our stride was fun to be a part of."
 
While her role in the summer with the Bandits takes her away from the daily tasks of her job at UMSL, she's not completely removed from the program.  
 
"Amanda allows me to balance it and does a bulk of what gets done here in the summer. But the nice thing is our recruiting base in in the Chicago area, so I am able to recruit a few tournaments, while not missing Bandits stuff."
 
And in the end, the benefits Lappin reaps from her additional role only makes her a better coach and will carry over to the UMSL program.
 
"It's the same game, just in a different space so I'm excited to share some of the things I learned from coaching the Bandits with what Amanda and I think is the new culture that we've established here in our fourth season and having a group of people that we feel have really bought it."