What does it actually take to rebuild a program — not once, but again and again — and keep getting better at it?
In this session of the Leading the Pack Speaker Series, BIOS Director Peter Miller opens with research on team rebuilding and change management before turning to one of the most experienced coaches in Badger Athletics to find out how that research plays out in real life. The result is a remarkably candid conversation about cycles of loss and renewal, what it means to lead through uncertainty, and why the beginner’s mindset never really goes away.
Yvette Healy has been the head coach of Wisconsin Softball since 2010, building the program into a consistent Big Ten contender with the highest winning percentage of any coach in the program’s history. She has navigated multiple rebuilding cycles — graduating ace pitchers, losing key staff, managing the disruptions of a global pandemic — and has come out the other side each time with something new to say about what the process actually requires.
“It’s never a finished product,” Healy says. “And I think almost every year I say, shouldn’t we know how to do this by now?”
About Yvette Healy
Yvette Healy is the head coach of the University of Wisconsin Softball program, a position she has held since 2010. She owns the highest winning percentage of any coach in program history and has led the Badgers to six NCAA Tournament appearances, including three consecutive regional berths from 2017 to 2019 — the first time that had ever been done at Wisconsin. Prior to Madison, she served as head coach at Loyola University Chicago from 2004 to 2010, winning the Horizon League title and earning Coach of the Year honors in 2007, and, before that, as an assistant at DePaul University. As a player at DePaul, she was a two-time All-American and three-time Academic All-American, and led the Blue Demons to the 1999 College World Series. She earned her B.S. in Marketing and Communications and her M.S. in Secondary Education and English, both from DePaul. She and her husband, Shawn, have two daughters.
This conversation was recorded at the start of Coach Healy’s 14th season at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.