A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you. - Bob Proctor.

Abby Hanrahan, Director

In October 2016 Abby created the Practice Pro Pitching School with Sarah Dec as her assistant coach. Since the first session, starting with 50 students from 10 different house and travel programs, the program has grown to 200+ students in 4 locations.  Each year Abby & her staff instruct over 1000 pitchers in all of their pitching school and clinics.

Abby Hanrahan won a NCAA DIII National Champion in 2002 with Ithaca College. She has over 15 years of teaching experience and 15 years of playing experience, becoming a full-time professional instructor in early 2015.  At Ithaca College her team appeared all four years in the NCAA Championships, was the 2002 NCAA Championship Tournament MVP, set the school record for strikeouts at 576 which still stands today, and was a two-year first team all conference and all region player.  She was inducted into the Ithaca College Hall of Fame in 2019. In 2020 she was honored with the Trinity High School Distinguished Alumnae Award.

Expect Abby to pitch with you during lessons and hold you accountable for your goals. She’s also a passionate goal-setter herself, having a running goal of breaking 20 minutes for a 5K (process still going, ahem very slowly), and a golfer who was once two strokes away from breaking 80. She has since settled for trying to beat her brother just one more time. Abby is a student of the mental game and teaches her students to be aggressive, disciplined, and to not take themselves too seriously.

Read the Practice Pro startup story here!

Abby is a National Fastpitch Coaches Association Endorsed Pitching Coach.

Sarah Dec, Head Pitching Instructor

Sarah Dec has been a coach at Practice Pro since the beginning (October 2016). She has her Master's degree in Sport and Exercise Psychology and her Bachelor's degree is Exercise Science. She is passionate about the sport of softball and teaching young athletes the importance of having a good work ethic because this was drilled into her head by her greatest influences (her strength and conditioning coach and former pitching coach). Her goal is to use all of the knowledge she has gained over the years and relay it to her athletes to help them reach their goals.

Sarah played two years of college softball (one year at Upper Iowa University and one year at Concordia University Chicago). She went to Guerin Prep High School where she led her team to the elite 8 in Illinois. She currently holds all the pitching records at Guerin. She played varsity all 4 years and was All Conference and MVP 3 of those years. Her senior year she was voted Conference Player of the Year as well as Senior Athlete of the Year.

Sarah has been pitching since she was 10 years old and was coached by John Hanrahan. She played for the Schaumburg Sluggers and Oak Park Windmills throughout her career. Growing up,Sarah's inspiration was Paul Konerko. Paul Konerko was a natural born, humble leader, who lead his team to win a World Series while never forgetting who helped him become a Major League athlete.

Nancy Findeisen, Head Pitching Instructor

Nancy started with Practice Pro at the beginning of the 2019 Offseason session after unknowingly re-uniting with Abby Hanrahan at a slow pitch softball tournament in the summer. As it turned out, Nancy’s team and Abby’s team had played each other 17 years prior in the 2002 Division III World Series. Nancy wanted to get back into pitching and Abby wanted another expert on staff so Nancy joined the team!

Findeisen was one of the most dominant pitchers in Lake Forest College program history and still owns the school record with a 1.20 earned run average during her career. She helped lead the 2002 Foresters, who were inducted into the school's hall of fame as a team in 2012, to a runner-up finish in the NCAA Division III Tournament, setting single-season team records with 19 victories, including 10 shutouts, and a 0.75 ERA along the way. Her 156 strikeouts in 158 innings that year were also a program-best and helped her become the first Forester to be named All-American. Findeisen tossed a no-hitter early that season and was named to the NCAA Regional and National All-Tournament Teams during Lake Forest's postseason run.

Katie Griggs, Head Pitching Instructor

Katie Griggs believes It is never too late to learn. She did not receive formal pitching lessons until she was in high school, having primarily been self-taught through trial and error and observing others. Players should always try to have fun, no matter the situation and take something positive out of everything. After all, if you try your best you can’t be disappointed.

Coach Griggs started with Practice Pro as a student, taking lessons from Abby. Once she got to college, Abby asked her if she wanted to coach, and then trained her as an assistant. After more than three years as an assistant, Katie will start as a lead instructor in the spring of 2023.

Katie went to DePaul College Prep for high school and was a three-sport athlete in softball (varsity for 4 years), volleyball, and bowling. As a current student at DePaul University she is studying physics and mathematics. Both are a great way of understanding pitching, especially the movements and mechanics behind a lot of different pitches.

Katie  has two no-hitters to her name and one perfect game. Her highschool batting average was about 0.450, winning the school’s Coach’s Award 3 times,and served as varsity team captain for two years, all earning her a lifetime achievement award from Gompers Park for playing softball there for over ten years.

Her first softball role model was Cat Osterman, having had a Cat glove for much of her younger years playing. She really liked her approach to the game as being more methodical and focusing on spin over speed.

Emily Tucci, Head Pitching Instructor

Emily Tucci’s goal is to build meaningful and lasting connections with the players, teach younger athletes to take ownership of their softball career, and make sure every athlete feels seen, heard, and welcome when they come to lessons.

As a coach, Emily started as a pitching instructor for the Schauburg Sluggers. During those four years she coached the 14U team for one year. Some of her goals include producing well-rounded athletes, encouraging athletes to play another position to improve their softball-IQ and agility. She’ll never stop her search for new perspectives and ways to help click with players. Most importantly, the best players focus on attitude first.

Emily started pitching and playing travel at 8 for the Roselle Rampage organization, continuing on with the Schauburg Sluggers up until college. While playing at Oberlin College Emily was the captain for 3 years and accomplished numerous awards including 2018 All NCAC Honors, 2019 NCAC Athlete of the week, 2021 NCAC Pitcher of the week, and the 2021 NCAC Scholar Athlete Award. 

Softball is so much more than a sport - the things you learn, the people you meet will shape your life in ways you could never imagine. The game knows! Respect it! 

 Andrea Starr, Online Pitching Instructor

Andrea started pitching when she was 6 years old and never stopped. She played for the Schaumburg Sluggers, who took 2nd place at NSA nationals when she was 16 and Elk Grove High School, who made 2 trips to the 4A State Tournament during her time there. She pitched at North Central College in Naperville, IL for 4 years. During those 4 years she became top 3 in her schools history in the categories of game wins, innings pitched, shutouts, and strikeouts! 💪🏻 She also threw 2 college no-hitters, and was awarded conference pitcher of the year as well as regional MVP during her 2015 season as her team made a top 16 run for the year.

During the day, Andrea works as a Physical Therapist in a nursing home. In her spare time she loves to paint, work out, and spend time with family and friends. We are happy to have her with our coaching staff!