Jenny Allard

Jennifer Lynn Allard (born 1968) is a former All-American softball player at the University of Michigan and the current head coach of the University of Pittsburgh softball team. Allard played for the Michigan Wolverines softball team from 1987–1990, where she was named an All-Big Ten player four straight years. She was a third baseman as a freshman and sophomore and a pitcher as a junior and senior. In 1989, Allard was named the Big Ten Player of the Year and a nominee for the Honda-Broderick Cup. She has been the head coach at Harvard since 1995, where she led the Crimson to its first Ivy League championship in 1992 and has followed with three more Ivy League crowns. In 1997, Allard told her team that she was a lesbian, becoming one of the first major college coaches to openly announce her homosexuality. In 2008, Allard was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor.

University of Michigan (1987–1990) After graduating from Woodbridge High School in Irvine, California, Allard played softball for Hall of Fame coach Carol Hutchins at the University of Michigan from 1987-1990. She began at Michigan as a third baseman, but became a pitcher in her junior and senior years. She holds a 334-123-1 record in the Ivy League. The Crimson was led in 1998 by Ivy Player of the Year Tara LaSovage and Pitcher of the Year Tasha Cupp.

Allard 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.

Personal life In 1997, Allard told her team that she was a lesbian, becoming one of the first major college coaches to openly affirm her homosexuality. Allard made the announcement to her players in an email. "What I wrote," Allard recalled, "was something like, 'I know you'll potentially be stopping by my suite or calling, and I just want to let you know that my partner has decided to move on campus with me and you'll soon get the opportunity to meet her.'"