UO release - EUGENE, Ore. –Sydney Romero has been promoted to associate head softball coach, head coach Melyssa Lombardi announced Tuesday. Romero, a two-time NCAA champion as both a coach and a player, recently completed her third season as an assistant coach on Lombardi's staff, which was named the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Regional Staff of the Year in both 2024 and 2025. Romero helped oversee a defense that helped the Ducks earn their sixth straight NCAA Tournament bid in 2026 and host a regional for the second straight season. Oregon's defense anchored the team's Big Ten Championship and Women's College World Series run in 2025. The team went 54-10 overall and 19-3 in the Big Ten. The 54 victories were tied for the second-most in team history. The team set a program record for fielding percentage at .980, which ranked fifth nationally. Kedre Luschar, Rylee McCoy and Paige Sinicki were all named to the 2025 Big Ten All-Defensive team. Kaylynn Jones was a Big Ten All-Defensive team selection at second base in 2026. During her first season in Eugene, Romero was instrumental in the development of Sinicki. The shortstop became the first Duck to win a Gold Glove. Sinicki was also named the 2024 Pac-12's co-Defensive Player of the Year. Oregon finished that season with a .974 fielding percentage, which ranks tied for third in program history. Romero joined Lombardi's staff after stops at Duke and Oklahoma. She was an assistant coach at Duke in 2023 when the Blue Devils went 48-12 (19-5 in the ACC) and hosted an NCAA Super Regional for the first time in program history. She was Duke's hitting and infield coach. Prior to Duke, as a graduate assistant at Oklahoma, Romero helped the Sooners win back-to-back national titles in 2021 and 2022. Oklahoma's staff was named the 2022 NFCA Division I National Coaching Staff of the Year, after going 59-3 overall. The Sooners were 56-4 in 2021. In addition to her coaching duties, Romero has continued to play softball professionally as one of the top players with Athletes Unlimited since 2020. When AU transitioned to league play starting with four teams in 2025, Romero was drafted by the Talons in the AUSL professional draft. She was the 51st overall pick (11th round). She helped lead the Talons to the regular season title and then hit the eventual game-winning home run in the sixth inning during the Talons' series-clinching 2025 championship series win over the Bandits. She was then selected fifth overall by one of two new teams, the Oklahoma City Spark, in the 2025 AUSL Expansion Draft. Through July 5, Romero was second in the league in runs (15), RBI (18) and total bases (43), third in hits (22) and fourth in batting average (.386). Prior to signing with AU, Romero was the third overall pick in the 2019 National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) Draft by the USSSA Pride, where she was named to the 2019 All-NPF Team. Romero, who holds dual citizenship in Mexico and the United States, played for the Mexican National Team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. As a player at Oklahoma, Romero earned two first team All-America awards and won national championships with the Sooners in 2016 and 2017. She was named the 2019 Big 12 Player of the Year and was a top-three finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year award. Romero was also a 2019 Senior CLASS Award Finalist and was named to two Women's College World Series all-tournament teams (2016, 2019). The four-time all-Big 12 selection finished her career as Oklahoma's all-time leader in at-bats (853) and doubles (58). She also ranked second in OU career history in hits (320), extra-base hits (121) and total bases (558); third in games played (258); fourth in RBIs (215); fifth in batting average (.375), runs scored (229) and home runs (54); sixth in assists (367) and seventh in slugging percentage (.654). A native of San Diego, Calif., Romero graduated from Oklahoma with a degree in criminology in 2019. She then earned her master's degree in adult and higher education with an emphasis in intercollegiate athletics administration from Oklahoma in 2022.