Kayla Bryant is in her second year as head coach of the Lakeland softball team in the 2025-26 school year.
The Muskies posted a 20-22 overall record in Bryant’s first year that included a 13-11 record to finish seventh in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. Lakeland was close to a much better record, with eight losses by a single run and a team record of 4-12 in games decided by two runs or less.
Bryant brings a variety of coaching experience at levels from the NAIA to NCAA Division I and came to Lakeland after serving as head coach at Mount Marty University in Yankton, S.D., for three years. She won 73 games at the NAIA school, and in her first season led the Lancers to the most successful season in program history. Mount Marty posted a 32-16 record, won its first Great Plains Athletic Conference championship, and advanced to the NAIA National Tournament.
Bryant also was an assistant coach at Mount Marty prior to taking the head coaching reins, including two years as a graduate assistant with the program from 2018-20. In between her stints with the Lancers, she also was a volunteer assistant at the University of Memphis for a semester, assisting in all aspects of the program with the NCAA Division I Tigers.
Bryant is a graduate of Cincinnati Christian University in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she played for two years and also gained her first athletic administrative experience as a student assistant with the athletic department. Bryant was a two-year starter at first base and a two-year captain at Cincinnati Christian, and as a senior led the Golden Eagles to the National Christian College Athletic Associaton (NCCAA) Midwest Region title and a spot in the NCCAA World Series.
A native of Martin, Tenn., Bryant began her collegiate career at Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis. She hit 13 home runs and drove in 77 runs over two years and as a sophomore received all-NJCAA Region 7 recognition.
Bryant received her master's degree from Mount Marty in leadership and coaching, her bachelor's degree from Cincinnati Christian in humanities with a minor in history and her associate's degree from Southwest Tennessee.
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