Perry Introduced As New UI Softball Coach
New UI women's softball coach Tyra Perry at Eichelberger Field. She was formally introduced in a Thursday press conference. (Daniel Collins/WILL)
The University of Illinois women’s softball team formally introduced its new head coach Thursday. Tyra Perry is a 15-year head coaching veteran who most recently served two seasons at Ball State.
Last season, Perry led the Cardinals to the NCAA South Bend Regional, where they were eliminated by 16-seeded Notre Dame.
Perry said she’ll be making strategies and game plans, based on her assessment of her new team.
“We’re going to use the entire fall to make a complete assessment of what we have versus what we’d like to have and what we, what we need to be," she said. "But we’re gonna give every single student athlete an opportunity to put their best foot forward. It’s a blank slate. I don’t know anything about them. All I know is what you show me. And, you know, we’ll emphasize that.”
Tyra Perry will succeed Terri Sullivan, who’s retiring after 16 years as the head softball coach for the Illini.
Having immediate success at Illinois wouldn’t be anything new to Perry. She was named the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year after her first season at Ball State in 2014.
Perry has spent the last 15 seasons as an NCAA Division I softball head coach, totaling 409 career victories as the head coach at Ball State, Western Kentucky, and Birmingham-Southern.
The U of I Board of Trustees will vote to approve her contract at its next meeting in Chicago next month.