The DePaul Blue Demons softball team represents

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...

in the sport of

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

at the Division I level of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

. The team has been a member of the

Big East Conference The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

(Big East) since the 2006 season. They play their home games a
Cacciatore Stadium
on campus in

Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US president Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, to near Ardmore Avenu ...

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. The Blue Demons are currently led by head coach Liz Bouck-Jagielski, who succeeded Tracie Adix-Zins starting in 2025.

History

Early history (1976–1979)

Few records were kept during the early days of DePaul's softball run. It is known that Tina Brown, the first Senior Women's Administrator for the

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It was first played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large parts via women's college compet ...

program, would also serve as the first head coach from 1976-1978. In 1979 Jeannie Lenti would serve as head coach for just the one season while also being the Athletic Director at DePaul since 1975. Retiring only in 2020 after a 45 year long career.

Eugene Lenti era – First tenure (1980-1987)

Beginning in 1980,

National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame The National Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame was established in 1991 to recognize sports coach, coaches who have made extraordinary contributions to the sport of softpitch softball. The National Fastpitch Coaches Association ("NFCA") is ...

r and brother of Jeannie Lenti, Eugene Lenti, began his 37-nonconsecutive-year long tenure at DePaul.

Phil Cahil era (1988-1989)

Serving only two seasons, Cahil achieved a pleasable record of 62―39 (.613)

Eugene Lenti era – Second tenure (1990-2018)

Returning to the position in 1990, Lenti would go on to have four seasons with 50 or more wins. Them being 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2008. The 1999 season is considered DePaul's best as the team finished 22―0 in conference play and 54―14 (.794) overall. The team would become ranked #11 in the nation before ultimately being defeated by

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in the 1999 NCAA Semifinal. By 2015 Lenti had become ranked seventh in wins in the history of college softball. His final record at DePaul was 1,236-604-6 (.671). Starting the 2020 season, it was announced that he would become the assistant coach at Auburn.

Tracie Adix-Zins era (2019–2024)

Beginning in 2019, Adix-Zins would begin her six year term as coach. Despite a small uptick during the 2021 season, following the suspended 2020 season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the team would experience increasingly worse records. In 2024 the team would finish just 9―39 (.191), making it the worst season in program history. She was soon fired by the university. She would ultimately become the head coach for the

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

Blue Jays at

Elmhurst University Elmhurst University is a private university in Elmhurst, Illinois, United States. It has a tradition of service-oriented learning and an affiliation with the United Church of Christ. The university changed its name from Elmhurst College on July ...

Liz Bouck-Jagielski era (2025–present)

After a tenure as the assistant coach at

Roosevelt University Roosevelt University is a private university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1945, the university was named in honor of United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university enrolls arou ...

, it was announced on June 11, 2024 that Liz Bouck-Jagielski would serve as the team's next head coach. She played softball at DePaul from 2000-2003 and served as an assistant coach from 2004-2011. The Blue Demons managed to finish the 2025 season with an overall record of 16―32 (.421), seen as a major step forward for the ongoing rebuild of the team.

References

{{reflist NCAA Division I softball teams DePaul Blue Demons