New Jersey and the northeast has been a hotbed for Amateur Softball Association (ASA) fastpitch since the organization’s Inception in 1933. There’s something to be said for being at the right place at the right time. As a teenager, Linda grew up in this environment of stellar players, coaches, umpires and officials, many of whom have since been inducted into national and state halls of fame.

Coach Linda’s first ASA coaches were USA National Softball Hall of Fame inductee Margaret “Toots” Nusse, and former Rockford Peaches pitcher and second baseman Millie Deegan, who is enshrined with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Toots founded the famed Linden Arians women’s team in 1934. Linda played under Millie and Toots for 4 years, playing in tournaments and leagues that stretched from Washington, DC to Massachusetts, and westward into Pennsylvania. This Linden, NJ team took to the ballfields for over 60 consecutive seasons before folding.

Linda was mentored by USA Softball of New Jersey Hall of Fame inductee Elizabeth “Betty” Zwingraf, an influential, long-time Eastern Major Softball League player, professor, author, college coach, and beloved pitching coach, who’s best known student is two-time USA Olympic gold-medal pitcher Michele Smith. Linda played for Coach Betty on her Linden Majors team, which competed from Florida to Massachusetts against teams like the Raybestos Brakettes, the Orlando Rebels, the Allentown Patriot Queens, the Waltham Drifters, the Connecticut Co-eds, Baltimore Bullets, Johnny’s Jets of Maryland, Staten Island Saints , New York Pandoras, Topton VIPs, and their local NJ rivals the Montclair Majestics and Budweiser Belles. In the 1980s Linda played for the Saints, Majors, and later with the Linden Arians as a player-coach, often in the annual Bud Light International Series, which was based in Newark, NJ and several other sites in the Metro NYC area. The top local teams in New Jersey would go up against visiting teams from Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Canada. The games drew huge crowds and were covered by the state’s largest newspapers. This was impressive at the time. It occurred years before the idea of softball in the Olympics gained ground, and when girls travel ball was just beginning to develop. College ball was still in its infancy, moving from AIAW to joining the NCAA in 1982.

Through the efforts of Coach Zwingraf, Linda was fortunate to have attended educational pitching sessions with Donna Terry, one of the first coaches in the nation who applied science to teaching pitching. Donna played original professional softball with the Connecticut Falcons, coached at Texas Women’s University and later at the University of California. She was a force on the JC Dolls, the national team of Puerto Rico. The Dolls traveled to New Jersey every summer to sharpen for the Pan-American games.

Linda began her coaching career in 1983, taking over for the retiring Nusse and Deegan as player-manager of the Linden Arians, and immediately captured the Women’s ASA Class-A New Jersey State Championship, followed by a strong regional showing. This team was led by an especially stingy pitching staff, one of whom was a high school recruit who years later became a national tournament Most Valuable Player and Most Valuable Pitcher with a different New Jersey team. Linda coached and managed ASA women’s Major and Class-A fastpitch at the highest levels for over 16 years, and directed several Miller Lite Invitational Tournaments in Linden, which featured national teams from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and top eastern Major and Class-A squads.

Linda founded the New Jersey Divas in 1998. The team competed in the Major, Class-A and 23U divisions during her tenure. In 2003, they won every tournament they entered including the 23U National Championship in Buffalo New York, but then placed 3rd at the Class-A Nationals in Fort Payne, Alabama, falling just short of becoming the first team to ever win two ASA national titles in the same season. Several NJ Divas earned ASA All-America selections, tournament Most Valuable Player, Most Valuable Pitcher, and National Championship MVP awards that year. The 2003 team, defensively outstanding, made only eight errors all season against the best teams in the nation.

During her ASA career as a player, which began at age 17 in the Eastern Major League, through her final games at age 41, she faced some of the world’s best players, including future Olympians. Her competitive playing career spanned 25 years, primarily in fastpitch, with a few seasons playing women’s Major Modified in New York City. She is a two-time ASA Major Modified All-America selection, with her 1999 team finishing as National Runner-Up in Spokane, WA.

Coach Lensch became an ASA umpire and graduated from the National Umpire School. She assisted at Union County umpire training sessions every Winter, often bringing in her players to lend hands-on situational experience for the newly-minted cadets.

Linda Lensch has been a pitching/assisting coach and clinician at Seton Hall, Kean and Stockton Universities for a combined total of 11 years. Kean was nationally ranked during her time guiding the pitching staff under head coach Renee Clark, a 1990s USA National Team player. Two of Linda’s pitchers were inducted into the Stockton University Hall of Fame. She was the head coach at nearby Ocean County College for one post-pandemic rebuilding season at the club level.

Linda has coached several players who earned college or ASA All-American selections, various Hall of Fame inductions, and invitational and national championship tournament MVP awards. One of her former NJ Divas made it to the professional ranks and received an invite to Chula Vista, CA for the 2004 Olympic tryouts. The following year, another Divas player was selected to the ASA Women’s Major All-America team at the National Tournament which garnered her an Olympic tryout invitation. They and others later coached softball on the high school and college levels, or privately. A few of the young women who began their careers under Coach Linda but later moved to other teams achieved similar accolades, including another National Tournament MVP, All-American selections and New Jersey Softball Hall of Fame inductions.

After winning the national tournament, Linda retired from softball to take up paddlesports racing, where she competed internationally and nationally for Team USA Dragon Boat, the Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association, and the Flying Phoenix women’s crew, also out of Philadelphia. She captured national titles in outrigger, marathon canoe, and dragon boat. Linda has raced in Italy, Hungary, Canada, and California, with manatees and gators in Florida, through the Tennessee Valley Gorge, on the historic Erie Canal, sped 70 miles in 9 hours from Cooperstown down the Susquehanna River, from Delaware to Cape May, NJ across 17 miles of open water, and around New York City. She placed 6th in her division at the world indoor rowing erg championships in Boston, finishing behind a former East German Olympic rower. The training, discipline, and experiences gained from these adventures transferred to fastpitch when Linda returned to softball in 2020, coaching 14U, 16u and carrying out organizational training for 3 years with the NJ Ruthless travel organization. She taught at Nike and college exposure camps before deciding to solely focus on coaching pitchers.

Coach Lensch founded Greased Lightning Fastpitch High-Performance Instruction LLC in 2022, hosting clinics and private lessons throughout New Jersey, and is currently based out of Adrenaline Sports Academy in Toms River, and Langan Sports in Morganville.

In 2005, Linda became the first inductee into the new Union County Softball Hall of Fame. She was unanimously voted into the USA Softball of New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2006, where she has served on the Selection Committee for 19 years.

Benefitting from her longtime immersion in the softball community, Linda has documented some of the bygone days of women’s fastpitch going back to the early 1930s. She was published in Fastpitch World Magazine, and has created online historical content.

After three decades of service, Lieutenant Lensch retired from a career in law enforcement.

Coach Lensch is a National Fastpitch Coaches Association-endorsed pitching and hitting coach. She is currently a three-star Master Coach with the National Fastpitch Coaches College college, and will complete her four-star Master Coaching certification at the 2025 Division 1 College Softball World Series in Oklahoma City this June.

Coach Linda is a member of the American Baseball Coaches Association.

She is a certified Speed and Agility Coach through the National Sports Performance Association.

Linda was one of an inaugural group of four expert pitching coaches from across the country to attain Levels 1 & 2 certifications from Square 1 System, a comprehensive framework designed to address various aspects of human locomotion, with the goal of reconnecting and upgrading sensory systems, alleviating pain, and enhancing overall human performance. It is a multifaceted approach that combines principles from various fields – including biomechanics, neuroscience, physical therapy, and sports performance – to optimize human movement and functionality. These coaches are spearheading the application of Square 1 methodology to pitcher development.

Coach Linda is currently working towards certification as a Corrective Exercise Specialist with the National Association of Sports Medicine. This professional expertise in human movement includes assessments to better identify compensations due to strengths, weaknesses and imbalances. Young pictures will benefit from individualized corrective programs designed to promote optimal health and performance.

Coach Linda has completed Levels 1 and 2 training for the “Motor Preferences for Sports Professionals” program through the renowned Volodalen research laboratory for movement dedicated to natural motor preferences. Headquartered in Switzerland, the Volodalen team is comprised of researchers, engineers, trainers, and health and sport professionals who have studied over 27,000 individuals and published more than 30 scientific papers. Additionally, Linda trained at the University of Maryland in Level 1 Baseball-Softball through Motor Preferences Experts LLC, Volodalen’s North American representative. This revolutionary approach is a gamechanger for identifying unique, unconscious patterns of movement, and then relying on accurate assessments to design training that is necessarily specific to each athlete. Coach Lensch has attended subsequent MPE training sessions in Rhode Island, Indiana and the New York City area.

Linda has also personally trained with motor preferences instructor Steve Janssen, the former head coach of Team Europe, Team Germany, and the Dutch national baseball teams. Steve was a pitching coach in the Chicago Cubs professional baseball organization. He is an Action Types Approach instructor, and founded BaseballActionID – “the CSI in baseball” – to teach and promote the Action Types Approach specifically for this sport.