Joe Kinsella
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- Title:
- Head Coach
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- Phone:
- 847-735-5291
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- Email:
- kinsella@lakeforest.edu
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The 2024 season will be Joe Kinsella's 18th at Lake Forest College and 24th as a collegiate head coach. The five-time coach of the year in the Midwest Conference owns a 284-241-2 overall record and impressive 192-36 mark in MWC play during his 17 seasons at the College.
Under Kinsella's direction, the 2023 Foresters posted a 26-14-1 overall record and won 12 of 16 league games to finish third in Midwest Conference play. Elena Chrisman, Kelly Collins, and Kyra Chevalier were named First Team All-MWC while two others were named to the second team. Chrisman also earned Second Team All-Region honors from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
The 2022 MWC championship was the program's sixth in the last decade and Lake Forest has advanced to every four-team MWC Tournament since 2000. The Foresters have claimed four conference tourney titles and earned a berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament five times during Kinsella's tenure. They have also won a total of 10 NCAA Tournament games and a regional tournament during that time.
Kinsella's players have earned 80 all-conference awards and 15 MWC Player or Pitcher of the Year honors in the last 17 years. He has also coached Lake Forest players to 28 All-Region honors from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
Thirteen Foresters were named Academic All-MWC in 2023, giving the team 129 since Kinsella took over as head coach. They have also earned the MWC Elite 20 Award five times since 2016. In addition, five of his players earned Academic All-District® honors from College Sports Communicators in 2023 and Josie Klein was named First Team Academic All-America® by the same organization in 2022.
Lake Forest has excelled in numerous statistical categories under Kinsella's direction. Members of the program set or tied three school records in 2023 and the program's top marks in 67 different categories have been recorded during Kinsella's time as head coach. Among the records set during his tenure is the 2015 team's 35 victories en route to an NCAA Regional Tournament title and appearance in the Super Regional round. In addition, Lake Forest has led the conference in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs, runs batted in, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, total bases, stolen bases, walks, hit by pitch, earned run average, opponent batting average, saves, strikeouts, putouts, assists, and fielding percentage during Kinsella's tenure.
Kinsella was the head coach at Millsaps College for six years before coming to Lake Forest. He took over a 1-26 program at Milsaps 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 also founded and directed Joe Kinsella’s Major Impact Softball Camps LLC, which he ran 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.
He resides in Lake Forest with his children Aiden, Caeli, Zoe, Greyson, and Liam.
