Tammy Utley is in her fifth year as head coach with the Lakeland softball program.
Utley has posted a 42-77-1 record in her first four seasons leading the Muskies. Most recently in 2021 she led Lakeland to a 12-23-1 overall record and a 9-11 mark in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. The Muskies posted their best conference record in five years and qualified for the NACC North Division playoffs, also their first trip to the conference tourney since 2016.
The softball team’s last two seasons have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including 2020 when the team got off to a 5-5 start on its spring break trip to Florida. The NACC announced the spring sports season was canceled soon after the Muskies played their final game in Florida.
Lakeland improved its overall and conference win totals in 2019, when it finished 14-24 overall and 7-15 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. The Muskies finished ninth in the NACC, one spot better than the previous year when they came in 11-25 overall and 6-16 in conference in Utley’s first season. Utley’s first Lakeland team was close to a much better finish, losing nine NACC games by two runs or less and also defeating league champion Marian and third-place finisher Aurora.
Utley was named head coach in June 2017 after assisting with the team the previous three years, serving as the team's hitting coach. She also was Lakeland's head women's tennis coach from 2015-18, leading the Muskies from a winless mark to a spot in the six-team NACC Tournament in two years later.
Utley is a former NCAA Division I athlete, playing collegiate softball at the University of Iowa, and has more than 20 years of coaching experience at the college and high school levels.
She played collegiately at Iowa from 1995-99, where for the Hawkeyes she was a team captain, team MVP, and was named third team all-Big Ten. She also was a Big Ten all-academic selection and an all-region scholar-athlete.
Utley is an Iowa native and began her coaching career as an assistant coach at Mid-Prairie High School in Wellman, Iowa. She then served as an assistant coach at the University of Northern Iowa from 2002-07, and then stepped into a head coaching role, first at Cedar Falls (Iowa) High School from 2008-10 and then at Waterloo West High School from 2011-12.
Utley graduated from the University of Iowa in 1999 with a B.S. in Sports, Health and Leisure & Physical Studies. She resides in Sheboygan.
| Tammy Utley Lakeland Coaching Record |
|
| Year |
Overall |
Conf. |
NACC Finish |
|
| 2018 |
11-25 |
6-16 |
tie-10th |
|
| 2019 |
14-24 |
7-15 |
9th |
|
| 2020 |
5-5 |
- |
|
season ended early due to COVID-19 |
| 2021 |
12-23-1 |
9-11 |
4th-North |
|
| Career |
42-77-1 |
22-42 |
