Lakeland alum Joey Lehto is in his ninth year with the Muskies coaching staff and will again serve as the team’s defensive coordinator in 2025. He also will again coach the team’s linebackers.
Lehto is in his fourth year as defensive coordinator for the Muskies, a tenure that included two games as the team’s interim head coach to start 2024. He earned his first win as interim coach in Lakeland’s second game, a wild 66-61 victory over Concordia Chicago to open the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference schedule.
Lehto returned to Lakeland in 2022 as defensive coordinator after previous tenures as an assistant coach from 2018-19 and before that from 2013-15. Before coming back to the Muskies he spent two years at Elmhurst (Ill.) University, where he was the team’s offensive coordinator and also coached the Bluejays’ offensive line.
Lehto received his first experience as a coordinator in 2019 when he took over as the Muskies’ offensive coordinator. He also coached the team’s offensive line in 2018 and 2019 after returning to Lakeland after coaching running backs at St. Norbert College. He also worked in the school's Residential Education and Housing office.
Before that, Lehto was an assistant for three years with Lakeland from 2013-15 after concluding a four-year playing career with the team. He was a graduate assistant with the team and the team's secondary coach his first year and then linebackers coach from 2014-15.
Lehto first joined the coaching staff after a four-year career with the Muskies in which he battled injuries but served as a starting fullback for two seasons. Primarily a blocker, he rushed 28 times for 63 yards in his career and scored his first two touchdowns as a senior at Maranatha Baptist. He also caught ten passes for 105 yards in 20 career games.
Lehto is a native of Bartlett, Ill., and received his bachelor’s degree from Lakeland in exercise science and sport studies in the spring of 2013. He also received his master's degree in counseling from Lakeland in 2016. He married the former Alyssa Vechiola in May 2025.
