Scots Announce Staffing Additions

The College of Wooster athletic department has announced the appointments of Mariyah Byrd (assistant women's basketball coach), Coleman Reifke (assistant athletic trainer), and Paige Summers (manager of equipment operations/assistant coordinator of facilities and events).

Byrd, a recent alumna of Ithaca College, was a two-year student assistant for the Bombers, where she managed the team's strength and conditioning program, assisted in all aspects of practice, provided support during games, and aided in off-the-court-team management. While assisting the program, Ithaca advanced to the 2019 NCAA Div. III national quarterfinals, made two NCAA Tournament appearances, won a pair of Liberty League titles, and had a WBCA All-American. Byrd gained additional coaching experience with the Upstate Ladies' AAU program.

Additionally, Byrd brings extensive strength and conditioning experience to the College, most recently as an intern at the University of North Carolina. There, Byrd assisted with lifting sessions, and helped design annual training plans and facility design programs. Byrd worked as a fitness monitor at Robert R. Colbert Health and Wellness Clinic, did fieldwork at Cornell University, and completed internships at Island Health & Fitness and Unity House.

As a first-year, Byrd was a member of Ithaca's team which advanced to the second round of the NCAA Div. III Championships. She holds a degree in exercise science with a focus in strength and conditioning.

Reifke arrives in Wooster after spending this summer as a certified athletic trainer at Camp Woodward, an extreme sports camp in Pennsylvania. Prior to that, he gained a wide range of experience while pursuing a master's degree in athletic training at Div. III Plymouth State University. While there, he worked with the football, track & field, volleyball, and wrestling teams, in addition to supporting student-athletes at Plymouth Regional High School and New Hampton School.

As a Div. III student-athlete, Reifke was a two-time Great Northeast Athletic Conference All-Academic selection and a three-year member of the men's soccer team at Saint Joseph's College of Maine. During Reifke's senior year, he completed an extensive internship with St. Joseph's athletic training staff, working closely with the baseball, basketball, lacrosse, and softball programs.

Reifke holds a bachelor's degree in exercise science from St. Joseph's and a master's in athletic training from Plymouth State. He was BOC certified in 2021.

Summers is already a familiar face at Wooster, as she spent her first two years at the College as the assistant softball coach. This past spring, Summers helped mentor a lineup that broke the North Coast Athletic Conference and school record for batting average (.357), and established new single-season benchmarks for winning percentage, runs, home runs, RBI, total bases, stolen bases, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage.

Additionally, Summers gained experience as a recreation intern and later as the basketball officials and scorekeepers supervisors with the City of Wooster, and she was an operations intern at Ashland University and the Ripken Experience in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

As a collegiate student-athlete, Summers earned second-team National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Region honors as a junior and was a three-time pick to the All-Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Team. Summers hit 17 career homers and led the team in RBI in two seasons. Prior to Ashland, Summers was a two-time All-Ohio selection at nearby Dalton High School, where she also earned two all-district and four first-time All-Wayne County Athletic League Honors.

Summers earned a bachelor's in sport management at Ashland.