Duke softball coach Marissa Young (right) high-fives Blue Devils outfielder Caroline Jacobsen during Duke’s 13-5 win over Georgia in the NCAA regional championship at Durham on May 22, 2022.
Nat LeDonne
Duke athletics
On this week’s ACC Now Podcast, The News & Observer’s Steve Wiseman talks with Duke softball coach Marissa Young about her program becoming one of the nation’s best in only six years of existence.
The Blue Devils finished the regular season 43-9, setting a program record for regular-season wins while going 19-5 in the ACC. Having already won an ACC tournament title in 2021, Duke won an NCAA regional last season and is aiming for the Women’s College World Series this spring.
Steve Wiseman was named Raleigh News & Observer and Durham Herald-Sun sports editor in May 2025. He covered Duke athletics, beginning in 2010, prior to his current assignment. In the Associated Press Sports Editors national contest, he placed in the top 10 in beat writing in 2019, 2021 and 2022, breaking news in 2019, event coverage in 2025 and explanatory writing in 2018. Before coming to Durham in 2010, Steve worked for The State (Columbia, SC), Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, S.C.), The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.), Charlotte Observer and Hickory (NC) Daily Record covering beats including the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints, University of South Carolina athletics and the S.C. General Assembly. He’s won numerous state-level press association awards. Steve graduated from Illinois State University in 1989.
