Ithaca's softball coach since 1989, Deb Pallozzi has built the Bomber program into a perennial playoff contender. She coached the team to its first national championship in 2002, compiling a 37-13 record,(a school record for wins). She is the school’s winningest softball coach, raising her Ithaca total to 560 wins in 20 seasons.
Pallozzi, who was named Ithaca's Senior Woman Administrator in the fall of 2005, has been named Empire 8 Coach of the Year five of the past eight seasons; her staff was named NFCA Northeast Region Coaching Staff of the Year after the Bombers finished 31-14, winning the regional title and placing fourth at the College World Series in 2005.
Pallozzi’s tenure has featured success at the regional and national levels. Following a 10-19 rebuilding season in her first year, 1989, Pallozzi started a run of 19 straight winning seasons. By her third year, she had the Bombers in the NCAA regionals, where Ithaca capped a 26-14 season by placing second.
A year later Ithaca posted 20 wins for the second year in a row, a program first. The Bombers slipped to 17-16 in 1993 but rebounded with a school-record 29 wins and a runner-up regional showing in 1994. Pallozzi was named the New York State Women’s Collegiate Athletic Association (NYSWCAA) coach of the year in 1994. Ithaca fell just short of a regional title again in 1995, ending up 26-16 with a second-place finish.
The 1996 team put together one of the program’s most successful seasons. After losing game one of the NCAA northeast region playoffs, the Bombers won the tournament championship and advanced to the six-team NCAA championship.
A year later the Bombers won a school-record 30 games and posted a runner-up finish in the regional playoffs. Ithaca broke the school record again in 1998, winning 31 games. Then in 1999 the Bombers won the NCAA northeast regional playoffs with a 3-0 record, advancing to the NCAA championships for the second time in Pallozzi’s tenure.
In 2000 she again led Ithaca to the championship tournament, winning the regional with a 4-1 record. The Bombers finished the season with a school-record 33 wins. Pallozzi was named the inaugural Empire 8 Coach of the Year. In 2001 Ithaca was again back in the championship tournament, posting back-to-back wins over Oneonta to advance. Pallozzi was named Empire 8 Coach of the Year.
In 2002 Ithaca captured the national championship after winning a rain-shortened regional. The Bombers posted a 4-1 record at nationals to win the title. Pallozzi was named Empire 8 Coach of the Year. In 2003 the Bombers finished with a 30-11 record, placing third in the NCAA northeast regional playoffs. Pallozzi was named Empire 8 Coach of the Year for the fourth straight season. The 2004 team went 27-15 and finished as regional runner-up. She led Ithaca back to the championship tournament in 2006 where the Bombers tied for fifth. That team posted a 40-7 record, setting a school record for wins.
In 2008, the Bombers returned to the College World Series after dominating the NCAA Regional Tournament, as the Bombers defeated four opponents by a combined score of 31-2 to take the regional title. Ithaca defeated Lynchburg and Cortland at the championship series to place fourth in the nation.
Pallozzi has coached some of the program’s most successful players, including 12 all-Americans and the school leaders in career average, season and career RBIs, season and career hits, season and career runs, season and career innings pitched, season and career wins and season and career strikeouts.
Pallozzi was a graduate assistant coach under head coach Jane Jacobs at Ithaca during the 1988 season. She coached the pitchers and catchers that year, including all-star Julie Wilcox.
Pallozzi is a 1979 graduate of Cortland, where she was a pitcher and outfielder on the softball team for four years. In 2004 she was inducted into the Cortland C-Club Athletic Hall of Fame. Following graduation, Pallozzi coached and taught at Columbia (New York) High School. She then served as an assistant coach at the University of Missouri, helping the Tigers finish fifth at the NCAA Division I World Series in 1981.
Pallozzi worked as assistant coach at Albany and then became head coach at Rensselaer, where she spent two seasons.
Pallozzi spent seven years as a member of the ECAC and NCAA Northeast Region softball selection committees for Division III. She chaired the latter committee for six years.
She previously coached the Jimmie Girls, one of the top amateur softball teams in the Albany area, and guided the Adirondack region softball team at the Empire State Games for two summers.
Pallozzi earned a master’s degree in physical education from Ithaca in 1993. Before instituting a fall softball program in 1996, Pallozzi was an assistant volleyball coach at Ithaca. The Bombers reached the NCAA semifinals in 1994 and 1995 with Pallozzi on the staff.
