Hailey Cavanagh heads into her seventh season as the head coach of the Concordia Cardinals softball program. During her time at Concordia, Cavanagh has coached 20 WHAC-All conference awards, including 2 WHAC-Newcomers of the Year in both Payton Lewis (2022) and Katie Tobias (2023) and 1 WHAC-Player of the Year in Lewis (2023), as well as 2 NFCA and 2 NAIA All Americans. In addition, the Cardinals have garnered 15 NCCAA All-Region Awards, 6 NCCAA All-American Awards, 1 NCCAA Region Player of the Year (Shannon McAlinden), 5 NCCAA World Series All-Tourney Team, and 1 NCCAA World Series Most Valuable Player in Pitcher, Paige Anderson. Academics are just as important to Cavanagh, with the Cardinals being awarded 39 times for WHAC-All Academic Team, 74 NFCA All America Scholar-Athletes, 5 CSC All-Districts, 32 NCCAA Scholar-Athletes, 36 NAIA Daktronics. Cavanagh has been named 2x NCCAA Region Coach of the Year and NCCAA National Coach of the Year, as well as 2x WHAC Champion of Character Coach. 

In 2023, the Cardinals had a breakout year, putting up the best season in program history, with 44 wins (the single most in a single season in program history). Cavanagh led the Cardinals to a NCCAA National Championship, tied for 2^nd in WHAC play, and runner-up finish at the WHAC Conference tournament. The team had eight all-conference players recognized (six to the first team and two to the second team) as well as Player of the Year in sophomore shortstop Payton Lewis and Co-Newcomer of the Year in Transfer Catcher, Katie Tobias. 3 were also named to the WHAC All-Defensive team and Cavanagh was named WHAC Champion of Character Coach.  The Cardinals continued to win awards, with four players being recognized to the NCCAA All-Region Team and both Shannon McAlinden and Payton Lewis being named Second team and first-team NCCAA All-Americans respectively. Payton Lewis and Shannon McAlinden were also named NFCA 2^nd Team All-Region players. For the first time in program history, Lewis and McAlinden were named CSC Academic All-Americans, later followed by Lewis earning NAIA Honorable Mention and McAlinden earning second-team NAIA All-American, the first two all-americans since 1994 & 2002 respectively. 10 Cardinals were named NAIA Daktronics, 5 to the CSC All-Dsitrict team, WHAC Academic-All Conference & NCCAA All-Academic Teams. Coach Cavanagh was named both the NCCAA Midwest Region Coach of the Year and the NCCAA National Coach of the Year, for the Cardinal's efforts throughout postseason play!

2022 saw a lot of personal success, as the Cardinals named 5 to the NCCAA and WHAC All-Academic Teams. Four Cardinals landed WHAC All-Conference (3 first team and 1 2^nd team), While freshman Payton Lewis was named WHAC’s Newcomer of the Year.  Both Payton Lewis and Shannon McAlinden were also named to the WHAC All-Defensive Team. Four Cardinals were named to the NCCAA Midwest Region Team, with Shannon McAlinden named NCCAA Midwest Player of the Year. Shannon McAlinden went on to be named NCCAA First Team All-American. Cavanagh reached her 100^th Cardinal win on March 30^th, 2022 vs UNOH.

In 2021, Concordia made massive leaps under Cavanagh. Winning 32 games (the second-most in a single season during Cavanagh's tenure), she led the Cardinals to a runner-up finish at the NCCAA National Championships, showing increasing improvement from their regionals appearance in 2018 and semifinals finish at nationals in 2019. The team had five players recognized to WHAC All-Conference teams, five named to the NCCAA All-Region team, and three named NCCAA All-Americans, including Lauren Reichel, who was named to the first team. Cavanagh was also recognized in 2021, being named the WHAC Champions of Character Coach and the NCCAA Regional Coach of the Year. 

Cavanagh joined the Cardinal staff after five years at the helm of the Lakeland Muskies (NCAA DIII) program where she helped to continually improve the team's record during her tenure. Cavanagh led Muskies to the NACC tournament in 2016 and guided 14 players to all-conference honors. The Muskies prioritized academics under Cavanagh's leadership with a total of 32 student-athletes earning All-NACC Academic honors. Cavanagh also serves as the Head Softball coach for the USAAI (USA Athletes International) International Softball Organization.

Before her coaching career, Hailey was an esteemed student-athlete. Cavanagh played four years collegiately, including two years at the University of Dubuque (Iowa) before finishing her career at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa. Cavanagh was a team captain at both schools and earned All-Midwest Collegiate Conference honors once and academic all-conference honors twice at William Penn.

Cavanagh received her bachelor's degree in psychology from William Penn in 2010 and a Master's in Business Administration from the University of Dubuque in May 2012. While earning her graduate degree in Dubuque, Cavanagh was a graduate assistant coach and head pitching coach for two seasons and served four months as interim head coach.

Coaching Highlights

• 1 NCCAA National Championship (2023)
• 1 NCCAA National Coach of the Year honor
• 6 NCCAA All-American selections
• 2 NAIA All-American selections
• 2 CSC Academic All-American selections
• 2 NCCAA Regional Coach of the Year honors
• 1 NCCAA World Series MVP
• 5 NCCAA All-Tournament Team selections
• 1 NCCAA Regional Player of the Year
• 5 CSC Academic All-District selections
• 1 WHAC Player of the Year
• 20 WHAC All-Conference selections
• 2 WHAC Newcomers of the Year
• 39 WHAC All-Academic selections
• 74 NFCA All-American Scholar-Athlete selections
• 36 NAIA Scholar-Athlete selections
• 32 NCCAA Scholar-Athlete selections
• 2 WHAC Champion of Character honors

Cavanagh's CUAA Year-by-Year Record

Cavanagh's Head Coaching Career