Merritt Yackey enters his 11th season as head coach in 2026 with the softball program at the University of the South.
 
Sewanee suffered through an injury-marred campaign in 2025, finishing 10-27 overall, 4-11 in conference play. The club set single-season records for batting average (.281) and extra-base hits (72). Hannah Wilson earned First Team All-SAA honors, Abbie Buckner was named to the Second Team and Maggie Barker, Ansley Giffin and Sydney Tackett garnered Honorable Mention recognition.

The Tigers posted a 6-12 mark in SAA action in 2024, winning a pair of games in the conference tournament and continuing momentum within the program from the 2023 campaign. Hannah Wilson was named Second Team All-Conference and Eve Bournias, Reagen Huskey and Sydney Tackett earned Honorable Mention accolades. The squad set single-season records in batting average (.270), hits (314), extra-base hits (60), RBIs (144), total runs scored (168) and stolen bases (73), besting marks set in 2023.

Yackey was voted SAA Coach of the Year in 2023, guiding the Tigers to a 7-11 league record and the program's first double-digit win total since 2005. The squad set single-season marks in batting average (.262), hits (253), extra-base hits (53), RBIs (111), total runs scored (127), stolen bases (65) and earned run average (4.87). Michaela Walker and Alice Charboneau garnered Second Team All-SAA honors while Bournias, Zoe Crockett and Wilson received Honorable Mention recognition.

COVID-19 limited the program to a total of 26 games combined for the 2020 and 2021 seasons. The Tigers registered a 7-26 overall record, 3-10 in SAA action, in 2022, the most league victories since 2005.
 
Yackey spent six years as head coach at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, N.C., before his time at Sewanee, taking over the program in the summer of 2009. He earned Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year honors in 2011, with the Bobcats posting a 26-27 overall record, 10-8 in league play. The team finished second in the regular season standings and lost in the conference tournament championship game.
 
His teams from 2012-15 received the conference Sportsmanship Award and Yackey earned the Edgar Tufts Humanitarian Service Award for service in the community and on campus at Lees-McRae College in April 2013.
 
In addition, he served as the Associate Director of Athletics for the last five years, with duties including scheduling all athletic travel, personnel management, assistance with fundraising efforts and special projects within the Bobcat athletic department and its 17 intercollegiate sports.
 
Yackey brings almost 30 years of experience in higher education. He was Director of Development/Special Giving at Albion College from 1988-93; Director of Development at Converse College from 1995-96; Director of Major Gifts and Planned Giving at Catawba College from 1997-00; Special Assistant to the President/Campaign Director at Limestone College from 2000-02; Vice President for Development at Mansfield University from 2002-04; and Vice President for Advancement at Lees-McRae College from 2004-07. Yackey also served as the head softball coach at Avery High School in Newland, N.C., in 2008-09.
 
Yackey earned his bachelor's in Business from Muskingum University in New Concord, Ohio, in 1981 and received a master's in Educational Leadership from Western Michigan in 1993. He and his wife, Sarah, have three children – Millicient, Morgan and Brock; two son-in-laws, John and Kyle; and four grandchildren, Mitt, Aubrey, Walter and Oliver.

Yackey's year-by-year as a head coach

Updated 1/29/2026