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A NEW ERA

FDSH graduate Utley becomes a college head coach

Submitted photos/Lakeland University Sports Information Fort Dodge Senior High graduate Tammy Utley, shown here during the spring season, is the new head coach at Lakeland University.

PLYMOUTH, Wis. — Tammy Utley has devoted her career to the game of softball.

Now, twenty years into her coaching career, the Fort Dodge Senior High graduate has landed her first head college coaching job at Lakeland University.

Utley has been an assistant for the Muskies during the past three seasons. Now, she will be taking over the lead role. Hailey Cavanagh recently resigned as head coach after five seasons with the Muskies to take another position.

“I don’t think I had aspirations to be a head coach, I just wanted to be a part of a program,” Utley said. “The opportunity arose, and I decided to go for it.”

Lakeland is a Division III school and a member of the Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference. The Muskies were 16-24 this past season.

Fort Dodge’s 1995 Florence Nordman Award winner has an impressive two-decade long coaching resume. For the past three seasons, she has been an assistant at Lakeland, and has served as the team’s hitting coach.

With Utley as batting instructor, the Muskies had two of the team’s Top-5 batting averages over the past 10 seasons (.341 in 2015 and .327 in 2016).

“I don’t know if there will be big changes, but obviously, we will do some things differently,” Utley said. “We’ll work more on defense and baserunning, and we’ll work on balancing that out with hitting.”

Utley, who has also been the women’s tennis coach at Lakeland since 2015, is excited to become a more active recruiter.

“I recruit a lot for tennis and did some for softball,” Utley said. “Hailey liked to recruit a lot, so I didn’t get out as much, but I’m looking forward to be able to do that more consistently and open up communication.”

Utley began her coaching career as an assistant at Mid-Prairie High School. She then went on to become an assistant at the University of Northern Iowa from 2002-07.

After that, Utley earned her first head coaching job at Cedar Falls from 2008-10. Utley then had a stint at Waterloo West for two seasons (2011-12).

Utley played collegiately at the University of Iowa from 1995-99 behind the plate. She was team captain, team MVP, and was named third team all-Big Ten. She was also a Big Ten all-academic selection and all-region scholar-athlete.

While playing for the Dodgers, Utley garnered all-conference honors in four of her five seasons. The catcher was the first player at Fort Dodge Senior High to play as an eighth-grader, where she garnered first-team Big Eight all-conference honors.

Utley was second team as a sophomore in the CIML. She ended her high school career on the first team as a junior and senior.

Utley also wrapped up her high school career as an all-state pick in her final two seasons.

Utley, who is the older sister of Fort Dodge Senior High head baseball coach Blake Utley, enjoys the fact that the siblings can lean on each other for coaching advice.

“Don’t tell him, but I look up to him a lot,” Utley said. “He’s doing a great job.

“It’s nice to be able to bounce ideas off of each other and have conversations about what is going right and what’s going wrong.”

Utley, who is a Fort Dodge Senior High Hall of Fame member, loves to get back to her home town and visit.

“I do get back often, usually for the holidays,” Utley said. “As an assistant, I was able to get back more when I was recruiting. I like to see the family and spend time around Fort Dodge whenever I can.”

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