The 2020 spring season will be Kristen (Brestan) Corning third as head coach after spending a year assisting long-time Chiefs’ coach Perry Clark. That season Corning helped guide Waubonsee to a 37-20 record overall, capturing the Region IV Championship for the first time ever to advance to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament in Mississippi. The Chiefs also completed an undefeated Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference (ISCC) campaign for the program’s unprecedented seventh straight league title. The last two years she has guided Waubonsee to second place finishes in the ISCC. Last year’s squad reached the Final Four of the Region IV Tournament before suffering a pair of tough losses to end the season with a 32-18 record.

Corning is a 2002 graduate of Addison Trail High School where she was a standout pitcher and infielder. She was named the Blazers’ Most Valuable Player twice, was a two-time All-Area performer, was chosen All-West Suburban Gold Conference all four years, and was an Honorable Mention All-State selection her senior year. That spring she also had a memorable performance against Downers Grove South High School when she struck out 37 Mustang batters in a 17-inning game, still the third most strikeouts ever recorded in an IHSA softball contest.

Corning went on to play for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, serving as team captain in 2005 and 2006. With an arsenal of five different pitches, she earned the Rangers’ Outstanding Pitcher Award and Freshman of the Year Award in 2003. A switch-hitter, she smacked 11 home runs in 2005 and was an All-Great Lakes Valley Conference selection as a senior. She went on to play in Aruba for USA International Softball during the summer of 2006.

Corning holds a degree in Fitness Management from UW-Parkside, and is a Certified Personal Trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. In 2013 she earned a Nursing degree from the Chamberlain College of Nursing in Addison. Corning works as a Registered Nurse with Northwestern Memorial Delnor Hospitals’ Pediatrics Department and Northwestern Memorial Kishwaukee Hospitals’ Telemetry and Pediatrics Department. In addition, over the years she has worked numerous softball camps and clinics, while also giving countless pitching and hitting lessons. Corning and her husband Shaun live in Elburn with their three children, nine-year-old Kabella, five-year-old Miken and three-year-old Parker. They are expecting a fourth child sometime later this coming summer.