Mackenzie Swinehart enters her third season in the Fordham Dugout, after joining the Rams as an assistant coach in August of 2023.
Serving as the Rams' first base coach, and outfield coach, Swinehart also assists with batting practice and hitting on the field. On the business side for Fordham Softball, Swinehart assists in the management our social media platforms, coordinating projects with the communications and marketing teams. She also helps in travel coordination planning meals for the Rams and leads the Rams' community service endeavors.
In 2025, a trio of players would light up the statsheet throughout the year, with Sydney Wells, Neleh Nogay, and Holly Beeman setting numerous single season records, and as a team also ranked amongst the national leaders in a variety of categories for much of the campaign. Upsetting both the No. 2 and No. 1 seeds at the A-10 Championship in Washington D.C. Fordham would advance to the title game for the first time since winning in 2022, falling in a pair of pitchers duels via walk-offs on championship Sunday.
Amongst those players, Wells would tally one of the best offensive seasons in program history, setting single season Top-10 marks in six different categories, including hits, walks, RBIs, total bases, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage. At season’s end the Rams took home 10 total All-Conference accolades awarded to seven different players, the second most awards ever for Fordham Softball in a single year.
In her first season with the Rams in 2024, Fordham reached the postseason, with the offense clinching all-season long, rattling off the sixth most doubles of any team in the country, and the third most by a Fordham team in program history, with four different players rattling off 12 or more doubles on the year.
Prior to her arrival in The Bronx, Swinehart was a graduate assistant at Notre Dame, working with the Fighting Irish for two seasons. Amongst her many responsibilities, Swinehart was tasked with scouting and filming for the Irish, practice and gameday setup, and live hitting and pitching in practice, and comes to Rose Hill with a plethora of knowledge in top scouting programs including Synergy and BATS. In addition, she assisted with hitting and outfield drills, game charting, and oversaw the student-athlete mental health wellness committee for the softball prgram.
In her two years in South Bend, the Fighting Irish amassed an overall record of 70-31-1, including 10 victories over Top-10 opponents. Notre Dame would make an appearance in the NCAA Regionals in each of those seasons, winning a game in each tournament. During her tenure, Swinehart helped coach her players to 18 NFCA All-Region selections, 18 ACC All-Academic nods, and 18 All-ACC Honors.
Her time with Notre Dame also saw numerous standout athletics come through the program, including Karina Gaskins, the 2022 ACC Player of the Year, and Carlli Kloss, who was named ACC Defensive Player of the Year last spring, in addition to being named a JWOS First Team All American and NFCA Second Team All American.
Prior to coaching with the Fighting Irish, Swinehart was a four-year softball player at Western Michigan University where she set all-time career marks for the program in hits (243) and runs scored (673) and is second all-time with a career .361 batting average. In her time with the Broncos, she was a two-time All-MAC honoree, earning first-team selection in her senior season as well as a second-team nod in 2017, her rookie campaign where she was also named to the MAC All-Freshman team.
