UCF Softball’s Cindy Ball-Malone Completes Her Staff Hiring Whitney Jones, Adam DeRusha

UCF Knights head coach Cindy Ball-Malone has completed her coaching staff by hiring former Washington Husky Whitney Jones as the Knights’ new hitting coach, as first reported by Justin’s World of Softball.

The move reunites Ball-Malone and Jones, who were coach and player respectively at Washington from 2011-12. In Jones’ 4 years as a outfielder and pitcher (2011-2014), she was a Pac-12 honorable mention (2014) and was part of the Huskies’ 2013 Women’s College World Series team.

Jones spent the last four seasons as the volunteer assistant coach at Washington, where she was part of the Huskies’ two trips to the WCWS in 2018 and 2019. She worked with the Husky outfielders and helped with the team’s offense.

She will be doing the same at UCF.

Jones joins Tyler Heil on the UCF staff. Heil was hired on July 1 after serving on the staff at New Mexico. Heil will be in charge of the defense.

UCF announced on Friday that Adam DeRusha has also joined the staff as the Director of Operations. DeRusha was formerly an Assistant Manager at Florida.

“Adam is a top one-percenter,” LSU Head Coach Beth Torina tells Black and Gold Banneret about DeRusha, who was on Torina’s staff at LSU for two seasons (2015-2016) and was part of two WCWS trips. “He is one of the hardest working people I have ever been around. You can count on him to get the job done and take the initiative to do anything that’s needed. Any program would be lucky to have him as a part. He is a true asset.”

“Coach is lucky to have Adam on her staff,” Oregon State Head Coach and 3-time USA Softball Gold medalist Laura Berg tells Black and Gold Banneret about DeRusha, who served on her staff as an assistant in 2017. “He pays attention to detail, he’s a hard worker and will do great things for their program.”

As reported on the In The Circle podcast, UCF’s all-time wins leader Alea White will also be part of the staff as a graduate assistant in 2022.

White broke almost every significant career pitching record during her time at UCF (2017-2021) and help lead the Knights back to the NCAA Tournament in 2021.