Marietta College Athletics

Kathleen Sutphin, a three-sport standout at Marietta College, earned nine varsity letters including four in softball, three in basketball and two in volleyball. A testament to her athletic and leadership abilities, she served as the team captain in all three sports and was named the Most Valuable Player on the softball team in 1982. Sutphin, a true Pioneer in women’s athletics at Marietta College, played when softball was still a slow-pitch contest, basketball still played with a men’s ball and there was no three-point line and volleyball was side-out scoring. The Ohio Athletic Conference didn’t add women’s sports until the fall of 1984, two years after Sutphin finished her playing career for the Pioneers. Sutphin credits former Marietta coach and athletic director Debbie Lazorik as the driving force behind women’s athletics at Marietta.  Sutphin was a three-sport athlete at Rutherford High School (N.J.) and earned all-league honors in volleyball and basketball.

Sutphin earned a degree in Psychology and completed a Masters of Arts in Teaching degree at Montclair State University (N.J.). While at Marietta, she was a member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority, a Freshman and Sophomore Scholar and a member of Omicron Delta Kappa.  She has been a special education teacher for the past 26 years in Lyndhurst, N.J. and received the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Teaching in 1990. Still active in her local town softball league, Sutphin has also coached special needs children in baseball as well as junior varsity and varsity girls basketball at Secaucus High School.