Born March 1, 1965, Doug Gillis played basketball and golf at Swan Valley High School and would go on to Northwood University where he graduated in 1990. But his love for softball helped him become one of the finest fastpitch softball pitchers this area ever produced. The 6-foot-3 right-hander learned the game at the tender age of eight with help from his father. He was a batboy on his father’s Saginaw Bolters 1979 National Championship fastpitch softball team and started pitching competitively at the age of 15. Gillis pitched Major Open Division teams to18 state titles and is the only fastpitch pitcher from the state of Michigan to be a five-time member of Team USA. He pitched for two National Championship teams and two runner-up teams. In 1985, Gillis won 43 games for Ashland (Ohio) Faultless-Gerber and in 1987 he hurled Pay-N-Pak to the 1987 ASA Major National Championship. Gillis earned a Silver medal at the 1989 Olympic Festival and spent one winter pitching in New Zealand. He was first team ASA All-America in 1998 and ‘99. In 2002, Gillis was a Gold medalist at the Pan Am qualifier in Guatemala. On August 7, 2003, he pitched a perfect game in the Pan Am Games for Team USA. Gillis is a six-time ASA Major All-American, a three-time first team ASA Major All-American, and an International Softball Congress All-World Selection in 1998. He is currently sixth in all-time ASA Major National tournament pitching victories and has the most wins of any active pitcher in ASA Major Division National tournament play. As an assistant coach with the Saginaw Valley State University women’s team, he helped guide them to a national championship in 1989. He is the owner of the Doug Gillis Pitching School and Softball Academy. He is responsible for training nearly 400 students weekly at the Wixom, MI school from September to April. He also runs a variety of coaching clinics as well as individual fastpitch hitting and pitching camps, while instructing internationally in five countries.