Buena Vista University Women's Softball

Tammy Utley joined Buena Vista University as its head softball coach beginning with the 2025 season. In her first year at the helm, the program was recognized with the Community Service Award during the BVU Athletics end of year Beaver Awards banquet. Utley also coached five players who were selected to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team. Utley came to BVU with over 27 years of coaching experience. Prior to her arrival, she spent seven seasons as head coach at Lakeland University in Plymouth, Wis. In her final season in 2024, she guided the Muskies to a school-record 35 wins (35-10 overall, 19-5 Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference) and one win shy of an NCAA Regional Tournament appearance. Prior to that year, the Muskies had not won more than 20 games in a season since 2016. Before being named head coach in June 2017, Utley spent three seasons within the program as assistant coach. A Fort Dodge, Iowa, native, Utley got her coaching career started as an assistant coach at the high school level at Mid-Prairie High School (1997-2002) in Wellman, Iowa. She then served as an assistant coach at the University of Northern Iowa from 2002-07, and then stepped into a head coaching role, first at Cedar Falls (Iowa) High School from 2008-10 and then at Waterloo West High School from 2011-12. She was inducted into the Fort Dodge High School Softball Hall of Fame in 2012. Utley played college softball at the University of Iowa, and as a senior in 1999, was named team captain, voted the team’s Most Valuable Player and earned Third Team All-Big Ten honors. Utley also ranked in the top-three of program history in career home runs, was also a member of two College World Series appearances (1996 and 1997), was a Big Ten Academic All-American in 1997.

Lauren Grief joined the Buena Vista softball coaching staff during the summer of 2025 and begins her first season as an assistant coach for the Beavers in the spring of 2026.  Prior to arriving in Storm Lake, Grief spent the 2024 and 2025 seasons as an assistant coach at Lakeland University. The 2024 campaign was spent as an assistant alongside current BVU head coach Tammy Utley. During her time with the Muskies, Grief was part of a team that posted a school-record 35 wins in 2024 and made the conference tournament in both seasons. Grief was a graduate assistant coach at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wis., for two years prior to joining the Lakeland staff. As a college athlete at Alverno from 2018-21, she played a multitude of positions, and as a four-year starter, she appeared in a total of 111 games, including 49 games as a pitcher. At the plate she finished with 75 career hits, including eight doubles and six home runs, while driving in 37 runs. Greif also threw 116 innings as a pitcher, collecting five wins and throwing six complete games in her 17 career starts. A four-time NACC Scholar Athlete, Greif received her bachelor’s degree from Alverno in business management in May 2021. She is a native of Chicago and a graduate of Lane Tech College Prep High School, where she was a team captain and member of an Illinois state regional championship team as a senior.