Haverford College Women's Softball

Kate Gatti (Poppe) is in her ninth season as the head coach of the Haverford College softball team. Gatti led the Fords to the Centennial Conference Championship series during each of her first two seasons and Haverford was also picked as the Centennial Conference preseason favorite in 2020 before that season was cut short. Gatti has compiled a 112-114-1 (43-52-1 Centennial) coaching record. In 2019, the Fords hosted the Centennial Conference Tournament following a 13-3 conference record as the team came within a single win of the program record. She also coached the 2019 Centennial Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year in Ashley Sisto '20 and 2019 Centennial Conference Player of the Year in Emma Souter '21. “I am so excited to become a part of the Haverford College community. I can tell Haverford is a special place and its values align well with my own,” said Gatti at the time of her hiring. “I look forward to taking Haverford softball to the next level on and off the field.” “Kate’s enthusiasm and appreciation for Haverford’s core values were very apparent throughout the search process. Kate’s vision of helping our student-athletes achieve excellence in their academic, athletic, and extra-curricular goals will serve the softball program well as the team looks to build upon its success from recent seasons,” stated Director of Athletics Wendy Smith ’87. Before her one season at Providence, Gatti spent one year as an assistant coach at Rider University where she worked with pitchers, hitters, and infielders. One area in which the Broncs saw huge improvements was in their pitching staff which nearly doubled its strikeout-to-walk ratio from 0.63 to 1.13 in Gatti’s first season. Rider was honored with the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) All-Academic Team award that season while 10 student-athletes were named to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Academic Honor Roll. Gatti’s coaching career followed a standout playing career as a student-athlete at Villanova University. A two-year team captain, she broke Villanova’s career record with 977 strikeouts and finished with a 2.52 ERA. Named the Big East Pitcher of the Year and an NFCA All-Mideast Region selection in 2016, Gatti was a three-time All-Big East selection and tossed five no-hitters throughout her playing career. She was also recognized on the Big East All-Academic Team during each of her four seasons. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Villanova’s School of Business in 2016, earning Cum Laude honors, while minoring in business analytics and entrepreneurship. During her time at Villanova, she was also a member of the Wildcats’ Athletic Leadership Institute. Getting her start in coaching while a student-athlete at Villanova, Gatti coached the Pennsbury Gems U18 Gold team from 2014-16. She has also worked as a coach/counselor at College Coaches Skills Camps, Diamond Nation, and Headfirst Camps.

Niki Clement enters her 16th season as head men’s and women’s varsity squash coach in 2025-26. In her time at Haverford, the Fords have captured two men’s division titles and two women’s division titles. The men’s team has qualified for the Conroy Cup during each of the last five seasons and achieved a year-end ranking of 28th following the 2017-18 season. That ranking was the highest for the program in over 10 years. The Fords won College Squash Association (CSA) Team Championships under Clement’s watch with the 2017 Chaffee Cup and 2012 Serues Cup. During the 2013 season, the men’s team was presented with the Barnaby Award, one of three distinguished national awards voted on by College Squash Association coaches and teams, which recognized the varsity team that displayed the most improvement throughout the season. After winning back-to-back CSA E Division Championships on the women’s side in 2013 and 2014, Clement has guided the Fords up a division to the Epps Cup during six of the last seven seasons. Her women’s team is on the rise in national prominence, as the Fords posted a No. 23 ranking during the 2022-23 season. The women's squash team and Clement were additionally recognized as the winners of the Clarence C. Chaffee Award for the 2015-16 season, presented annually to a women’s squash coach whose team has demonstrated the qualities of sportsmanship, teamwork, character, and improvement. On the national level, Clement has recently been appointed to the College Squash Association’s newly-formed Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Coaches Committee as well as the Mental Health Committee. A well-respected coach on the national level, Clement previously served as the secretary for the Women’s College Squash Association (WCSA), which is the governing body for all national collegiate women’s teams. Clement, who graduated from Radnor High School, played professionally from 2009 to 2012 and ranked as high as 78th in the world in the February 2012 rankings released by the Women’s International Squash Players Association (WISPA). Her collegiate career foreshadowed the success she has achieved on the pro tour. A 2006 graduate of Bowdoin College, Clement was a two-time All-American (2003, 04) and four-time Most Valuable Player for the Polar Bears, who finished ninth in the country in 2003 and never lower than 13th during Clement’s four years as the squad’s No. 1 player. A team captain in her final two years at the school, she received the Lucy L. Shulman Trophy for Most Outstanding Female Athlete in 2006 after earning the Most Outstanding Female Freshman Athlete Award in 2003. Clement’s career wins total is the most in Bowdoin program history. Clement’s coaching career began while she was still an undergraduate at Bowdoin. She received her level-I coaching certification in 2004 then coached at several squash camps over the next few years. Following her graduation and an internship with the United States Squash Racquets Association (then headquartered in Philadelphia), Clement moved to California where she began work on her master’s degree in sport management at the University of San Francisco. She joined the staff at the Decathlon Club where she worked as a squash professional and also gained collegiate coaching experience working with Mark Talbott’s Stanford University squad during the 2006-07 season. Upon completion of her master’s degree in 2009 Clement accepted a position as a squash professional with The Squash Alley in Stamford, Conn., where she also serves as a regional representative for the women's committee of U.S. Squash, and began playing on the pro tour. The Clement family is not new to the Haverford campus as Coach Clement's grandfather, Frederick T.J. Clement ’45, and great-grandfather, Dewitt C. Clement 1917, are both Haverford College alums. Dewitt excelled on the track for the Scarlet and Black, setting the two-mile school record, 10 minutes, 15.8 seconds, in 1916.