Harford Community College Names Belcamp Native, Patterson Mill High School Alum Madison Knight Head Softball Coach

Madison Knight, Head Softball Coach

Harford Community College Athletics has announced that Madison Knight has accepted the position of head softball coach for the Fighting Owls. A Belcamp, Maryland native, Knight joins Harford fresh off a stellar four-year NCAA Division I college softball career at Syracuse University.

“I look forward to this opportunity,” Knight said. “We want to compete with the best teams in the region. To do that, I think the staff and I need to focus on recruiting student-athletes that want to play at the next level (NCAA) and want to put in the necessary work during their time at Harford to reach that goal. We want student-athletes that want to win and that want to improve every day.”

Knight finished her collegiate career at Syracuse with a 38-37 record as a pitcher, posting a 3.54 ERA and 389 strikeouts in 499 2/3 innings pitched.

“We are thrilled to have Madison on staff as our new head softball coach,” said Athletic Director Ed Liesch. “She is a very determined and passionate competitor on the softball field as a player. I am confident the same attributes as a player will follow her as a coach and leader of young women.

“Madison is a tremendous and highly skilled athlete,” continued Liesch. “Talking to former coaches and colleagues, they all said the same thing, ‘While a great athlete, she's a greater (better) person and she was born to coach softball.’  Madison was impressive throughout the search process. Her competitive spirit, positive mindset, and willingness to take on any challenge is what convinced me she was the right person to take the program to a new level.”

As a hitter at Syracuse, Knight slashed .252/.379/.526, hit 29 home runs, and had 95 RBIs. Knight left Syracuse in the record books for the following: T-3^rd most home runs in a season (15), T-6^th most career home runs, T-7^th most extra base hits in a season, 5^th best slugging percentage in a season, and 8^th all-time slugging percentage.

“Madison has a tremendous work ethic, a unique ability to connect with people, a high softball IQ, and most importantly, a passion for the game,” said Syracuse head softball coach Shannon Doepking. “There’s no doubt she’s going to build a winning program and pour all of herself into [Harford’s softball] program and those student athletes.”

Before leaving her mark at Syracuse, Knight earned four varsity letters each in softball and basketball at Patterson Mill. On the diamond, she helped lead the Huskies to the 2021 MPSSAA 1A Maryland State title and a runner up finish the following season. She was First Team All-Harford County in both sports all four years, earned Gatorade Maryland Softball Player of the Year in 2021 and 2022, USA Today Maryland Softball Player of the Year in 2021, and earned The Baltimore Sun All-Metro team honors in 2021 and 2022.

“I’m excited to be back in Harford County,” Knight said. “I look forward to giving back to a community that gave a lot to me.”

Prior to Patterson Mill, Knight played for the Pennsylvania Chaos for five seasons (two years on 14U and three years on 18U) and four seasons with the Hickory Hornets (11U-14U). Knight got her start on the diamond with Belcamp Recreation around age seven when she was the only girl on a tee-ball team. The following year, she began playing softball at Emmorton Recreation and for the next three years, she played simultaneously for one of Emmorton’s in-house rec teams and, for two years, it’s travel team.

Visit www.harfordathletics.com for more information about Harford Community College athletics and Fighting Owls softball.