Lake Forest College Sports Information
September 22, 2006
Contact: Mike Wajerski, SID

Joe Kinsella Named Head Coach of Forester Softball Team
Joliet Catholic High School graduate was head coach at Millsaps College 
  

Joe Kinsella
Lake Forest, Ill. - Lake Forest College Athletic Director Jackie Slaats announced Friday (September 22) that Joe Kinsella has accepted the position of Head Softball Coach at the College. Kinsella replaces three-year head coach Tina Johnson, who was recently hired to direct the program at Colorado College.

“I’m excited to have Coach Kinsella join our staff,” Slaats begins. “He has been extremely successful in each step of his career and I believe he is the ideal choice to help our softball program continue its winning ways.”

Kinsella had been the head coach at Millsaps College since the fall of 2000. He took over a 1-26 program and directed it to three Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference West Division championships, one league title, and an NCAA Regional third-place finish. Individual Lady Majors were named All-SCAC 38 times, earned 36 Academic All-SCAC honors, and were voted SCAC Players of the Year twice during his six seasons. He was named the conference’s Coach of the Year in 2003. He is also the founder and director of Joe Kinsella’s Major Impact Softball Camps LLC, which he has run throughout Mississippi during the summer. In addition to softball, he was an assistant football coach from 2000-03.

Prior to coaching at Millsaps, Kinsella was the head coach at Dakota Wesleyan University for one year, an assistant softball and football coach at Illinois Wesleyan University for two seasons, a campus minister at St. Patrick High School in Chicago, Illinois, for a year, and a softball, track & field, and cross country coach at Resurrection High School in Chicago for three seasons.

Kinsella graduated from Joliet Catholic High School in Joliet, Illinois, and Illinois Wesleyan University. His high school football team captured a state title and his college squad advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

“I am grateful to Lake Forest College for giving me the opportunity to take over the reigns of such a successful program,” begins Kinsella. “It’s also great to get back to the area where I grew up. I look forward to getting to know the College and the athletes here and leading the team to even greater accomplishments in the near future.”