News out of the college softbll world as sources have told Line Drive Media that Head Coach Tyra Perry has parted ways with the program at the University of Illinois, leaving with one year to go on her contract.

Athletic Director Josh Whitman is reportedly meeting with the team tonight at 5 pm CST to discuss the situation.

Multiple players have confirmed the change being made and, interestingly, Assistant Coach Laura Trout has removed Illinois from her bio on her X.com account.

This year, the Fighting Illini team has struggled and as of today has a 15-39 (.278 winning percentage) and are just 3-20 in the Big Ten.

This, following the 2025 season when the team went 22-28 overall with a 6-15 mark in conference after compiling a 21-31 record (5-15 in the Big Ten) in 2024.

This year, the team finished 16^th in the conference after finishing 13^th( 2025) 12^th (2024) and 12^th (2023) in preceding years.

In 11 season at the university Perry’s record was 301-264 for a .533 win percentage.

Here is part of Perry’s bio as currently seen on the Illinois softball webpage detailing the start to her career in Champaign:

Tyra Perry was hired as the University of Illinois’ second-ever head coach in June, 2015.

Through 26 seasons as a NCAA Division I softball head coach and 11 at the helm of the Illini, Perry has totaled over 700 career victories as the head coach at Illinois, Ball State, Western Kentucky and Birmingham Southern.

Perry made an immediate impact in her time at the helm of Illini softball, leading the program to its first back-to-back NCAA Regional appearances since 2010 after advancing to postseason play in 2016 and 2017, and she helped the Illini to 36 wins or more for three-straight seasons, 2016-18, for the first time in program history.

She guided the Illini to another NCAA Regional in 2019 after a 33-25 season and already had three top-25 wins in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the season.

Perry is a graduate of Louisiana State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology in 1997 and added a master’s degree in sports administration in 1998.

After two seasons at Nicholls State, Perry followed her head coach to LSU as the second signee in the first signing class of the newly created Tiger softball program.

After sitting out in 1996, she became a two-year letterwinner for the Tigers (1997-98), helping the program post a combined 102-28 record over her career, including a 58-14 mark in Southeastern Conference play.

She also helped the Tigers pick up a pair of SEC West Division titles and make the program’s first-ever NCAA Regional Tournament appearance, where it finished second.