Meet the Team
Whitney Johnson | Owner of Wind Up Fastpitch, LLC | Pitching Instructor
Two-time Summit League tournament MVP and 2013 Pitcher of the Year Whitney Johnson enjoyed a record-setting career for North Dakota State University. She ended her career as the Summit League’s all-time leader with 994 strikeouts. She was the Bison all-time leader in appearances (153), games started (131) and inning pitched (861.2), and second in opponent batting average (.185) and strikeouts per 7 innings (8.08 avg.) Johnson was a member of three Summit League championship teams and made three NCAA regional tournament appearances while at North Dakota State. She was the 2010 Summit League Freshman of the Year, a four-time all-league and all-tournament selection, and a two-time all-NFCA Midwest Region pitcher. Johnson was a 12-time league pitcher of the week and four-time national pitcher of the week.
Following her career at NDSU, Johnson went overseas to the Netherlands to pitch for Centrals de Bilt in Utrecht, just outside of Amsterdam. She led the Dutch league with a 0.75 earned run average, strikeouts, and fewest walks.
After concluding her pitching career, Johnson joined the coaching ranks. She worked with the pitchers at UNLV during the 2017 season. Prior to heading to Las Vegas, Johnson was an assistant and pitching coach for the University of La Verne from 2014-16. She helped lead ULV to Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) championships in both 2015 and 2016. Under her direction, Leopards’ pitcher Katherine Kibbe improved from a 4.03 ERA as a sophomore into a conference MVP performer with a 21-6 record and 1.84 ERA as a senior.
A native of Lake Crystal, Minnesota, Johnson graduated early in January 2010 from Lake Crystal Wellcome-Memorial High School. She led LCWM to the program’s first state tournament appearance in 2009. Johnson struck out a Minnesota High School record 435 batters, including a single-game record of 21, in rolling to all-state first team and state all-tournament honors.
Johnson graduated from NDSU in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in human development and family science. She earned her master’s degree in child life from the University of La Verne in 201
Angie McBeain | Co- Owner of Wind Up Training Center | Pitching & Hitting Instructor
Prior to her college experience Angie was one of 5 Ms. Minnesota Softball Finalist during her senior year at Prior Lake Highschool. In her final season as a Laker, she had 26 strikeouts and a 1.44 ERA. She then took her career to a dominate NJCAA school, Kirkwood Community College. During her time as an Eagle, she appeared in 29 games as pitcher and 61 games as a designated hitter. In her mound appearances Angie managed to throw one perfect game in her career throwing only 46 pitches and striking out 5. In that same year she pitched 119.1 innings, striking out 125 batters, and accomplishing an ERA of 1.82 and an overall record of 20 – 2. As a hitter she appeared 61 games, totaling 168 at bats with a batting average of .421 and attaining a slugging percentage of .699. She was a large part of the batting line up and strong offense the Eagles are known for, batting in 62 runners and hitting 11 homeruns. She was also named First Team All-Region and Fastpitch News NJCAA DII 2nd Team All American.
She finished her college education at Winona State receiving a Bachelor of Science in Sport and Exercise in 2016. She is currently enrolled in the University of Minnesota School of Kinesiology for master’s Sport and Exercise which will be completed in December of 2021. She has acquired multiple experiences working with pro athletes in the sports performance world as well as helping with youth and high school level athletes. Her passion is developing physically and mentally strong well rounded athletes to help them reach their fullest potential in their chosen sport.
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Megan Dray | Catching & Hitting Instructor
Former Minnesota Gophers catcher/first baseman Megan Dray played her first three years at North Carolina. She saw action in 126 collegiate games for the TarHeels and started in all 24 during the shortened 2020 season. As a sophomore, Dray started in 55 games as catcher and hit .301 with 41 hits for 12 extra bases. Defensively, she ranked 10th in UNC's single-season record book in runners caught stealing. As a rookie in 2018, she also played in 47 games where she split time at first, third and catcher. In her first season with the Gophers (2021) Megan started 29 games and in 2022 appeared in 51 games starting 49 of them. Prior to her time at North Carolina, Dray was a four-year starter for Brookville High School and led her team to the Virginia 3A State Championship all four years, including first-ever state titles in 2014 and 2015.
Alyssa Reina | Catching & Hitting Instructor
Reina joined the Maroon and Gold following a decorated playing career at North Dakota State University as a catcher and utility player. During her years as a member of the Bison squad, she collected a career batting average of .314 and drove in 133 runs. Reina also ranks seventh all-time at NDSU in slugging percentage (.570), home runs (29) and putouts (1,069). Reina during her time as an undergrad received numerous accolades including a three-time Summit League All-Tournament Team honor, 2015 Summit League Second Team, two-time NFCA All-American Scholar Athlete, 2015 NFCA all-Midwest Region Third Team, 2016 Summit League First Team and 2016 NFCA All-Midwest Region First Team.
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Tamara Hicks | Slapping Instructor
Known as a triple threat on the left side (soft/hard slap, swinging away and bunting), Tamara Hicks was a 2015 graduate of Robbinsdale Cooper High School. She was a slapper all of her high school and college career. She was an extraordinary lead off hitter and shortstop at Robbinsdale Cooper High school. She went on to play at Indian Hills community college, Johnson County Community College and two years at Missouri Western State University (D2). At Missouri Western, Tamara went 17 for 17 in stolen base attempts putting her at second of all time, just one short of the school career record. During her junior year, Tamara scored 20 runs. At JCCC Tamara was first team All- Region and All-District. She batted .349 with a .413 on-base percentage and slugged .473. She went 19 for 19 on stolen bases and scored 35 runs during her sophomore