Hallie Swanson enters her 10th season as an assistant coach with the Northwest Nazarene softball program in the 2025-26 academic year.
Swanson, who was elevated to the top assistant role in 2019, works with the outfielders and assists in all facets of the program.
Swanson's nine years in Nampa have coincided with the best run of success in NNU softball history. Excluding the COVID-shortened 2021 season, the Nighthawks have won five of the eight GNAC Regular Season Championships during that stretch. They have also won three GNAC Tournament titles and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each of the five conference championship campaigns.
Swanson has also been a travel ball coach for the Idaho Dirtdogs since 2017, which has included consecutive PGF Nationals Berths from 2020-2023. Prior to joining NNU's program, she was a high school coach in the valley from 2014-17 and earned 5A JV Coach of the Year honors in both 2016 and 2017. She also earned coaching experience in the 90's when she was a player/coach with a travel ball organization called the Inland Empire Pirettes.
Originally from Redlands, California, Swanson's collegiate playing career started at Cal Poly Pomona, but the softball program was dropped after her freshman year so she moved to Huntington, West Virginia to be a part of DI Marshall University's inaugural softball program. She played second base and right field for her three seasons at Marshall, where she was a part of the Thundering Herd's 1995 Southern Conference Tournament Championship and was credited with three walk-off wins in the 1994 season. Of note, she attended Marshall at the same time as future NFL stars Randy Moss and Chad Pennington.
Swanson graduated from Marshall in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Sports Medicine. Upon graduation, she spent a year as a sports medicine graduate assistant at Eastern Kentucky University and graduated from EKU in July 1998 with a Masters in Athletic Administration. She then worked at the University of Wyoming as an assistant athletic trainer for women's basketball & women's soccer from 1998-2001.
Hallie lives in Eagle, Idaho and is married to Matt Swanson. They have two daughters, Annie Swanson (currently attending NNU) & Sophie Swanson (11th grade at Eagle High School).
