Head coach Jamie Trachsel dipped into the professional ranks of Athletes Unlimited to find her newest assistant coach, DJ Sanders.
The Columbus, Mississippi, native returns to the Magnolia State after brief coaching stints with Memphis, Mississippi State and Missouri to help work with the Rebel offense in 2024.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be back in my home state, in the SEC and working with Jamie,” said Sanders. “I’m fortunate for the opportunity to continue learning and growing as a coach with this staff, and I’m excited to get started.”
Sanders continues to play professionally with Athletes Unlimited and has done so in each of the league’s four seasons. In four games this year she has 288 points. In 2022, she competed in the AUX exhibition season, totaling 808 points in eight games with a .500 batting average. The previous year she tallied 1,352 points and finished 15th, slugging a pair of homers and collecting five RBIs in 11 games. In the summer of 2020, Sanders finished 14th individually in the inaugural AU season with 1,520 points and batted .333 with four homers over 14 games.
This past season, Sanders served as an assistant coach at Memphis. At the helm of the offense, she worked primarily as the hitting coach and lead scouting of opposing pitchers. Sanders also worked with the outfielders in her one season with the Tigers.
In one season in Starkville, Sanders was a part of MSU’s historic run to the NCAA Super Regional in 2022. She helped assist the Bulldog offense as a hitting instructor and led the scouting of opposing pitchers. With Sanders’ guidance, Mississippi State broke the single-season record in home runs and turned in top-five marks in program history in both runs (312) and RBIs (282).
Sanders got her start in coaching as a graduate assistant in 2020 at Missouri, helping the Tigers to a 61-24 record in her two seasons.
After graduation, Sanders was drafted No. 21 overall by the Chicago Bandits in the 2018 NPF Draft. She made her professional debut with NPF on June 16, 2018, and recorded her first career hit the next day. In her rookie season, Sanders batted .306 and ranked third on her squad in home runs.
Collegiately, Sanders played her first three seasons as the starting shortstop at Louisiana. As a junior, Sanders led the NCAA in 29 home runs (29), RBIs (82) and slugging percentage (1.013) en route to earning NFCA First Team All-American honors and being named one of 10 finalists for the USA Softball National Player of the Year award. She also played for the USA Softball Junior National Team at the World Cup of Softball and Junior Women’s World Championships in 2015. For her senior year, she transferred to Oregon and earned All-Pac-12 honors in 2018. In her lone season in Eugene, she helped lead the Ducks to a Pac-12 Championship while blasting 16 homers and collecting 51 RBIs.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports
