ST. LOUIS – Saint Louis University head softball coach Christy Connoyer will be inducted into the Metro St. Louis Softball Hall of Fame Tuesday, March 4.
 
A native of Bethalto, Ill., Connoyer is the longest-serving and winningest coach in SLU softball history, collecting 360 victories in Midtown as she guides the team for a 15th season in 2025. Her 391 career wins include one season as head coach at Tulsa.
 
Connoyer was named 2023 Atlantic 10 Conference Coach of the Year after steering SLU to the A-10 regular-season championship, the first league title in program history. She led the 2024 Billikens to the final round of the A-10 Championship, where the team finished as tournament runner-up for a second time during Connoyer's tenure. The conference tournament appearance was Saint Louis' 10th in the past 11 years. 

Connoyer has coached student-athletes who have earned A-10 postseason accolades (All-Conference first or second team, All-Rookie, All-Tournament) 71 times, including major-award winners Brianna Lore (2014 Pitcher of the Year), Gabbie Kowalik (2019 Rookie of the Year) and Isabel Royle (2024 Rookie of the Year). Additionally, Billiken players have garnered All-Region plaudits 12 times under Connoyer's watch.
 
Excellence in the classroom also has been a hallmark of Connoyer's program. SLU has achieved a top-20 grade point average among NCAA Division I softball programs every year since 2014-15, including third in 2015-16, sixth in 2016-17 and 2018-19, and ninth in 2020-21. The Billikens achieved a 3.91 GPA during the fall 2024 semester.
 
Connoyer's collegiate coaching experience also includes five seasons as associate head coach at Southern Illinois and eight seasons as an assistant coach at Purdue. Additionally, she served as an assistant coach for the USA Athletes International team that won the championship of the 2011 Softball Australia International Challenge Series, and she was on a USAAI staff that coached an American squad in the Netherlands in 2018 and 2019.
 
Connoyer also has been heavily involved in collegiate softball off the field. She served on the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America Selection Committee as the Mid-Atlantic Region voting representative from 2013-16, and she was Chair of the All-America Committee from 2015-16. From 2017-23, Connoyer was the A-10's representative on the NFCA Head Coach Committee. She also has delivered presentations at NFCA clinics in Kansas City, Minneapolis, Louisville and Portland.
 
In her playing days as a shortstop, Connoyer was a four-time first-team All-Conference selection at the University of Notre Dame (1991-94). She received team Most Valuable Player honors in 1993 and was a team co-captain in 1994.
 
Connoyer compiled a .285 batting average in 217 games for the Fighting Irish, and her 393 career assists rank sixth in program history. She helped lead Notre Dame to six Midwestern Collegiate Conference championships (three regular-season, three tournament) and the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1994, when the Irish won what was then a school-record 41 games.