Dawson Hired as Head Coach of St. Clair Women's Softball

Windsor, ON – The St. Clair College Athletics and Recreation Department is happy to announce that Dwayne Dawson has been hired as the next the Varsity Women's Softball Head Coach.

Dawson is a Wheatley, ON native and spent the last five years as an Assistant Coach with the Saints Softball staff starting in 2019 primarily working with the infielders.  During that span he helped St. Clair win two OCAA regular season pennants, five provincial medals including a pair of OCAA titles (2022 & 2023) and four Canadian Collegiate Softball Association podiums that were highlighted by two national championships in 2022 and 2023.  St. Clair amassed a 95-19 record during those five regular seasons and compiled a 128-30 overall tally. 

Prior to joining St. Clair, Dawson coached locally for 14 years spending nine years with the Windsor Lady Expos (2007-15), four with the Windsor Wildcats (2016-19) in addition to a season with the Amherstburg Cardinals covering age groups from U10 through U18.  Dawson has helped those teams reach three Canadian Championships including one at the U14 level and two at the U16 level.  Both those U16 Bantam squads finished 5th in Canada out of 20 qualifying teams.

Dawson has twice led teams to American World Series events including 2008 in Orlando, Florida at the 10U level and 2015 in Ocean City, Maryland at the 16U level.  In 2019 he served as a Pool Coach and Team Ontario talent evaluator in preparation for the Canada Summer Games.

Since joining St. Clair, Dawson has continued to work in the club system with the LaSalle Athletics program and was the 2024 U17 Head Coach that accomplished a Provincial Championship and an Eastern Canadian Bronze Medal. 

As a youth Dawson was also an accomplished hockey player lining up for the Blenheim Blades Junior C club for three seasons (1985-88) and donned the captain's C in his final year.  But he shined brighter on the baseball diamond where he played locally for Wheatley and the Windsor Selects eventually winning a 1989 Canada Summer Games Gold Medal as a member of Team Ontario which springboarded him to a spot on Team Canada roster that year. 

Dawson earned a scholarship to NCAA Division I Cleveland State University where he received his Bachelor of Civil Engineering.  He was later drafted as a pitcher by the Houston Astros in the 22nd round of the 1992 MLB June Amateur Draft where spent time with Auburn in the New York-Pennsylvania League (Short-Season A) and Quad Cities in the Midwest League (A).

He qualified for several National Championships as a member of the Windsor Selects and Tecumseh Thunder in addition to winning a pair of Senior Canadian titles with the famed Windsor Chiefs.

St. Clair Director of Athletics and Recreation Reid Innes commented on the hiring, "Dwayne has been an important part of Saints Softball's tremendous recent success.  He has a wealth of experience and is highly respected amongst his peers and the athletes he's coached.  We're excited to have Dwayne take the lead in helping write the next chapter for our program."