The 2026 softball season for Tennessee ended where it often does under veteran coach Karen Weekly, at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.
Yet this year’s finish was unique for Weekly, as the two teams that advanced to the best-of-three championship series — Texas and Texas Tech — each lost to the Lady Volunteers in the double-elimination format before regrouping.
“Yeah, I still watched it,” Weekly said this past week. “I swear every year whether we make it out there or not that I’m not going to watch it, but softball is just the greatest game, and I get hooked. I’ll turn it on, and before you know it, I’ve spent hours on the couch.
“I watched those games. It was tough knowing that we were the team that knocked both of them into the losers bracket and made it a little more difficult for them to get into the final, but they both earned it.”
This season was Weekly’s 25th with the Lady Vols, with her tenure yielding a 1,181-369-2 record with 15 appearances in the NCAA tournament’s super regional round and 10 WCWS trips, including three in the past four years. Weekly and her husband, Ralph, served as Tennessee’s co-coaches for 20 years through the 2021 season, just as they did during their five seasons together at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga from 1997 to 2001 that produced a 223-97 record and five Southern Conference championships.
Weekly didn’t always know where her husband was this spring as Tennessee racked up a 49-12 record, only that he was somewhere close and watching every pitch.
“It’s kind of like finding Waldo,” Weekly said. “You’re never quite sure where he’s going to be. Sometimes he’s up in one of the private suites. Sometimes he’s hanging in the press box. Sometimes he’s sitting in a chair next to an usher. He moves around, but he’s always got a clipboard and a little score sheet, so he keeps track of what’s going on during the game.
“He makes several notes, and he goes over them with me when I get home. Now I have to listen to him. Before I didn’t. Softball is never too far from the conversation in our house.”
The Weeklys, incidentally, liked the Chattanooga area and its residents so much that they kept their home at Montlake Golf Course on Mowbray Mountain for 10 years after leaving for Knoxville.
ACADEMICS FIRST
Weekly starred at Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland, Washington, leading the NAIA her senior season in 1987 with a .440 batting average. She also played basketball and, more importantly, pounded the books, which led to Weekly earning her law degree from the University of Washington in 1990.
She practiced law in Chattanooga before becoming UTC’s coach and served as an associate professor at the university’s College of Business Administration even while coaching the Mocs. That academic success continues to translate throughout her roster with the likes of infielder Aubrey Leach (2016-19) earning her law degree from Tennessee in 2024, pitcher and former Meigs County standout Ashley Rogers (2019-23) graduating with a 4.0 GPA in kinesiology, and current catcher Elsa Morrison, who just balanced her freshman season with the demands of being an engineering major.
“I think we attract a young lady who understands that academics are her first priority,” Weekly said. “We tell them in recruiting that it’s not about the next four years but preparing you for the next 40. I had coaches and professors when I was in college who knew my dreams and goals and aspirations.
“Nobody stopped me. In fact, they bent over backwards to help me. I vowed when I stepped away from law to get into coaching that we would never sacrifice academics.”
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Weekly continues to employ much of the same old-school methodology she used when she first took over the Mocs, often pointing out that athletes continue to crave consistency. Yet she also admits there are differences from when she first got into coaching, which has altered her approach.
“I grew up in an era when you got a lot of tough love, and you got that from coaches and teachers and everybody,” she said. “Toughness came first, and if they were being tough on you and pushing you, that’s how they were showing love to you. Now, I think you have to flip the two and love tough.
“The kids now need to know that you love them and that you will love them no matter their performance. You love them unconditionally for the person they are, and once they know that, then you can be tough. It’s really just kind of a shift in perspective.”
PROMISING FUTURE
With 30 years of coaching in the rearview mirror, Weekly is showing no signs of stepping aside, and why should she? Her Lady Vols were one win away from playing in the WCWS title series earlier this month and are set to return every starter but star pitcher Karlyn Pickens and infielder Ella Dodge, who hit .285 with a team-leading 46 RBIs as a redshirt sophomore and announced her intention Saturday to enter the NCAA transfer portal.
The Lady Vols led the nation in team earned run average this season not only because of Pickens but junior Sage Mardjetko and sophomore Erin Nuwer.
Tennessee has never been closer to a national championship in the sport, and it’s coming at a time when the sport has never been stronger. College softball has bid farewell to Pickens, Texas Tech’s NiJaree Canady and Nebraska’s Jordy Frahm (formerly Bahl), but Teagan Kavan was just a junior in the circle this past season and will try to lead the Longhorns to a third consecutive crown.
“I think when we look back on this era, there are those names that you’ll remember,” Weekly said. “Those are some of the best pitchers who have pitched in this game for a long time, but we’re also in a very explosive offensive era, so I think we’ll definitely look back at this as a special time.
“Just when you think softball can’t get any bigger, it continues to explode.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.