Yvette Healy enters her ninth season at the helm of the program with the highest winning percentage of any UW coach in the program’s 21-year history with a .602 winning percentage (257-170-1).

For the second year in a row, Wisconsin earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament in 2018. The Badgers finished seventh in the Big Ten with an 11-9 conference record, highlighted by the program's first-ever series sweep of Nebraska. Healy collected her 250th-career win at Wisconsin on April 22, 2018.

With a 35-17 record in 2017, Wisconsin reached the NCAA Tournament and playing for the regional championship for the third time in five years. The Badgers started the season with seven-straight wins, the best start in program history, and went on to record a program-best 13-game road win streak from Feb. 25 to March 25, 2017. Healy secured her fifth season with 30-or-more wins with the Badgers, the most of any UW softball coach. The team topped the record books in RBI (250) and walks (212) while ranking in the top-10 for several categories.

Under her tutelage, Chloe Miller became the program’s first-ever NFCA All-American, the first USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year finalist, and the second-ever NFCA Player of the Week and NPF Draft pick (No. 11, Akron). In her senior year, Miller became the program’s all-time leader in career multi-RBI games (53), career RBI (181), career home runs (31), and runs (145), ranking second all-time with 215 career hits and 57 career multi-hit games.

Healy’s 2016 squad faced nine top-25 teams, securing a 5-3-1 record against its ranked foes. The Badgers batted in 244 runs in 2016, just three RBI shy of the all-time season record, while tallying the third-most runs (265) and walks (196) all-time. Senior Taylor-Paige Stewart single-handedly achieved four saves on the mound, tying the program’s team season record.

Wisconsin has had a total of 12 first-team All-Big Ten selections in program history with 10 of those coming in the Healy era. Kelsey Jenkins, who earned back-to-back first-team All-Big Ten accolades in 2015 and 2016 and again in 2018, was the first freshman in UW history to collect the honor.

Healy has helped her players seen just as much success off the field as she has on the field. The Badgers have received a total of 44 combined Academic All-Big Ten recognitions in the last seven seasons.

The 2016 senior class recorded 129 wins in four seasons, the third-most wins by any Wisconsin class, while the 2015 senior class went down as the second-winning class in school history with 135 victories. In the last six seasons, Wisconsin has had four 30-plus win seasons after only previously having five 30-plus win campaigns in 15 seasons.

In 2015, the Badgers clinched the highest season on-base percentage (.389) in school history and claimed the Wisconsin single-season walks record (176). The season also the season record for stolen bases shattered (118 stolen bases) along with setting the highest single-season batting average (.296).

Healy entered the 2015 season having led the team to its second consecutive NCAA Regional Championship. Healy directed the team to the NCAA tournament in back-to-back seasons, which had only been done once before by UW in 2001 and 2002 and only a total of three times in the history of the program.

At the end of the 2014 season, the Badgers finished in two final national polls for just the fourth time in the program’s 19-year history and the second consecutive year. UW came in at No. 24 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 and received votes in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25 for the eighth time in the season. Wisconsin finished the 2014 season at No. 32 in the NCAA Softball Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), after facing nine of the 31 teams who posted a higher RPI ranking.

The 2014 season boasted the second-highest win total (36) in school history. The Badgers defeated six ranked opponents and tied with the 1997 team for the most top-25 wins in a season. UW won four NCAA tournament games over the last three seasons, having won one in the program’s first 19 years of existence. For just the second time in program history, the team achieved a pair of NCAA tournament wins matching their run in 2013.

The conclusion of the 2014 season marked the end of incredible careers for Cassandra Darrah, Mary Massei, Michelle Mueller and Stephanie Peace. Under Healy, the senior class went down in the history books as the most winningest class in UW history at 144-75.

The 2007 Horizon League Coach of the Year, Healy guided the Loyola (Ill.) Ramblers to a top-four conference finish in every season she was at the helm. She has coached four NFCA All-Mideast Region players over the last four seasons, and the team set the single-season school record for batting average (.292) in 2010. Healy’s team also set single-season Loyola records for stolen bases (116) and home runs (37) in 2009.

As Healy was winning coach of the year honors in the Horizon League in 2007, the team was capturing the conference title with a 14-5 record. Pitcher Amy Solava was also named the league’s pitcher of the year, just the third player in school history to earn the award.

Off the field, Healy was instrumental in the team’s community service participation. She was a part of numerous campaigns to give back, including the Strike Out Cancer Fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Healy’s teams have also excelled in the classroom. The 2010 team was the recipient of the 2010 NCAA Academic Performance Program APR Award, while nine players in her time were named Academic All-District by ESPN the Magazine and 25 were chosen as Scholar Athletes by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

She took over as head coach at Loyola in July of 2004 after spending two seasons as an assistant at her alma mater, DePaul. While with the Blue Demons, Healy coached five All-Americans as the team won the Conference USA title in 2003 and 2004 to make the NCAA tournament.

A two time All-American and three-time Academic All-American as a player, Healy ranks second on the DePaul single-season chart with a .424 batting average and is the school’s all-time leader with 102 stolen bases. In her senior campaign in 1999, Healy led the Blue Demons to a school-record 54 victories, an NCAA Regional Championship and the College World Series as the team wrapped up the year ranked third in the nation. She earned All-Mideast Region honors on three occasions as well.

Prior to her collegiate coaching career, Healy worked for the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox Academy as Director of Marketing. She also served as head softball coach at her alma mater Providence Catholic High School, where she was the salutatorian at her graduation in 1995.

Healy graduated cum laude and earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing and communications from DePaul in 1999 and her master’s in secondary education and English from DePaul in 2007. She and her husband Shawn have been married since 2006. They currently reside in Madison with their two daughters, Grace and Maeve. read more...