After 9 Seasons, Monica Tantlinger Ends PCC Softball Head Coaching Run

Monica Tantlinger has chosen to step down as Pasadena City College softball head coach, but will continue her full-time position as an instructor and chair of the Kinesiology Health & Athletics Division.

Citing both family and academic responsibilities, Tantlinger ends a nine-year stint in directing the Lancers softball program. In not only turning around a fledgling softball program, Tantlinger helped navigate the Lancers through many obstacles/restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In nine seasons (eight complete) from 2014-2023, she totaled a successful 180-163 overall record (.525 win percentage), guiding PCC to the SoCal Regional Playoffs in 2017, 2018, 2019 and the recently completed '23 season. 

Known for her high energy as a motivator in the third base coach's box, Tantlinger coached 25-win or more teams in three consecutive years from 2017-2019.

Six of her teams won 20 or more games. The team's 16 South Coast Conference victories this past season is a new program high.

This year, she helped the progress of PCC's first South Coast Conference MVP in 18 years in third baseman Jaimie Harris, an All-State selection who set the program's single-season home run record at 12 and all-time, long ball mark with 17.

Tantlinger reflected on her coaching tenure. "The student-athletes that I have worked with over the course of my career have impacted my life in ways that I will never forget," she said. "They gave me the opportunity to stay in a competitive arena and played hard to represent PCC. I am forever grateful to them and their commitment. The coaches I've worked with sacrificed so much to elevate our program and they are the backbone of the teams I coached.

"I will always be thankful to PCC and colleagues for giving me the opportunity to become a head coach. I know my journey with softball is not over, and our paths will cross again, but now it's time to step away for a while."

More than 30 of her players received all-conference recognition and she coached All-Region selections in both shortstop Kaylee Medrano and catcher Holly Riker-Sloan. 

Tantlinger's strong, positive influence on her student-athletes saw five players return to the program from 2020 to play their second year of community college eligibility this season.

Coach Tantlinger in a 2017 photo