Jenny Allard, the Ivy League's longest-tenured and winningest softball coach, completed her 28th season as head coach of the Harvard softball program in 2023. Allard, who was named to the NFCA Hall of Fame Class of 2022, owns a 688-518-4 overall record, including a 342-130-1 Ivy League mark.
Team and individual success have gone hand in hand during Allard's tenure. All nine of Harvard's Ivy League titles, each of its six 30-win seasons and its eight NCAA Championship berths have come under the watch of Allard, who has led Harvard softball for more than half of the program's existence.
Allard's teams have produced 78 first-team, 75 second-team and 51 honorable mention all-Ivy selections, as well as seven Ivy League Players of the Year, eight Ivy Pitchers of the Year, seven Ivy Rookies of the Year and three All-Americans.
The California native started her coaching career at Iowa as an assistant under Gayle Blevins. In her two seasons in Iowa City, Allard helped the Hawkeyes to a pair of 30-win seasons and an NCAA invitation in 1993. After her second season at Iowa, Harvard tabbed Allard in the fall of 1994 to serve as its fourth head coach in program history.
Allard made an immediate impact in her first season, guiding the Crimson to a 10-win improvement over the season before, going 28-14 and posting an Ivy League runner-up effort in 1995. Harvard finished in second place three consecutive campaigns under Allard before the 1998 Crimson squad went 34-22 and 12-0 in the Ivy League to capture its first conference title and NCAA berth. Two seasons later, Harvard was an Ivy champion again and on its way to the 2000 NCAA tournament before sharing the conference title in 2001.
In her first 10 seasons, Allard made her mark on the program, leading Harvard to three Ivy championships (1998, 2000, 2001) and two NCAA bids (1998, 2000), while enjoying success not seen before in Cambridge. Additionally, from 1995-2004, Allard won 244 games, easily surpassing the program total from the first 14 years of its existence (203 victories).
Allard continued her string of success over the next 10 seasons (269 wins, including program-record 18 straight in 2014), producing eight .500-or-better records and three 30-win campaigns, each of which resulted in Ivy championship trophies and trips to the NCAA tournament (2007, 2011, 2012). The 2011 squad set a program record with 36 wins (36-16) and 18 Ivy League victories (18-2), while becoming the second school in conference history to have the Ivy Player, Pitcher and Rookie of the Year. Twelve months later, Allard helped Harvard nearly match its 2011 effort as it went 35-15 (17-3 Ivy) and advanced to the NCAA regional final for the first time.
As Allard moved into the third decade of her tenure at Harvard, the Crimson have won at a high rate, posting winning records in every full season since 2015, while also finishing first or second in the Ivy League. Allard coached Harvard to the Ivy League title and to the NCAA Championship in three of the last four completed campaigns (2018, 2019, 2023). Harvard’s 2020, meanwhile, was stopped after 10 games due to COVID-19, which also wiped out its ’21 schedule. Additionally, Allard was named The Ragatz Family Harvard Women’s Coach of Excellence in 2018-19 and 2019-20. The honor is awarded to a coach of any Crimson women’s team and takes into account one’s overall contribution to the athletics department, team performance, student-athlete experience and development, leadership within their sport or at Harvard, and other criteria related to excellence in coaching at Harvard.
Allard started her collegiate career at Michigan, playing third base before stepping into the circle to fill a pitching vacancy during her junior season in 1989. Allard was a four-time All-Big Ten Conference selection (first team – 1987, 1989, 1990; second team – 1988), a two-time first-team Mideast Region selection and an Academic All-Big Ten honoree as a senior.
During the 1989 campaign, Allard was one of the top players in the country, leading the Wolverines in batting average (.351), hits (65) and RBI (29). When she stepped into the pitching circle, Allard was just as dominant, posting a 19-9 record with a 0.75 ERA and 64 strikeouts. Following her performance, Allard was named the ’89 Big Ten Player of the Year and to the All-America first team, while being nominated for the Honda Broderick Award. She was also the recipient of the Big Ten’s Conference Medal of Honor, an award given to the highest-achieving female student-athlete. Allard finished her time in Ann Arbor ranked in the top four all-time in 15 hitting and pitching categories, and graduated from the school in 1990. Two years later, she was named to the Big Ten All-Decade Team.
Off the field, Allard, who earned a master's degree from the Harvard School of Education in 1999 and a master's in psychology from the Harvard Extension School in 2003, has been influential in the softball and Harvard communities.
Allard has been a member of the NFCAÂ for 32 years, serving as an Assistant Coach Representative on the Board during her time at Iowa and holding different positions while at Harvard (Education and Publications Committee Chair, Head Coaches Caucus member). She also served on the NCAA Division I Softball Committee from 2017-20, helping to decide the NCAA tournament field.
At Harvard, meanwhile, Allard has been a valuable asset to the University since her arrival in 1994. During her time in Cambridge, Allard has been a member of the Board of Freshman Advisors and served as a Freshman Academic Advisor for 25 years, a proctor for 12 and a non-residential advisor for 13. She also helped launch in 2020, Harvard’s Grow. Play. Achieve. (GPA) program, which provides health, wellness and community building opportunities for all undergraduates.
For all of her efforts and accomplishments over her illustrious career, Allard was named in December 2021 to the NFCA Hall of Fame Class of 2022, at the association’s national convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. Allard officially became the first Ivy League-associated player or coach to be inducted into the NFCA Hall of Fame on Dec. 9, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas.
