Bio

Numerous female athletes at Midview have experienced success not only at the high school, but have gone on to continue their athletic endeavors at the collegiate level. But, it takes someone to lead the way, to be the trailblazer, and for Midview High School, that person was Deborah Sober, the very first Midview female athlete to receive a full athletic college scholarship. She showed all the young women who were to follow her at Midview what hard work, discipline, and ultimately success could potentially lead to following their high school playing days.

Name a sport that Midview offered in the late 1970’s and Deborah Sober was a participant. She immersed herself into athletics and the competition that came with it. She played basketball for three seasons, and was on the track team for two years, where she ran the 100 yard dash and the hurdles. Deborah competed in tennis for two years (including being the Coaches Award winner in 1977, and team MVP in 1978) and was also a member of the Midview Club bowling team for three years.

But Sober’s biggest success was on the softball diamond where she excelled for two tremendous seasons. In 1977, Deborah won the Coaches Award, and then in 1978 earned the MVP award where her statistics were outstanding. She racked up a .324 batting average, and as a pitcher, struck out nearly eight per contest while surrendering less than three hits per game. Her ERA was under 3.00 as well.

It was then that history was made at Midview, when Sober was awarded a full athletic scholarship to play softball at Ohio University, the first female athlete to receive that distinction.

Deborah lettered for two seasons as a Lady Bobcat, including pitching for OU her sophomore year, in which she achieved a 2.33 ERA.

Following her sophomore year in Athens, Sober transferred to the University of Rhode Island to pursue a double major in Speech Communication and Elementary Education.

Deborah still resides and is involved in education in Rhode Island. She is married to John Iacchini and has two sons, Matthew and Andrew