University of Illinois Springfield Athletics

• In her third season as an assistant coach for the Prairie Stars
• Helped UIS advance to the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament Championship Game in 2019
• An all-conference and all-region performer at the University of Michigan

Caitlin Blanchard is in her third season as an assistant coach with the UIS softball team in 2021.
In 2020, Blanchard assisted the Prairie Stars in going 10-8 during their shortened spring season. UIS was third in NCAA Division II in stolen bases, and led the GLVC in home runs and slugging percentage.
 
Blanchard was part of a coaching staff in 2019 that helped UIS win 29 games, and advance to the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament Championship Game. She helped the Prairie Stars score 247 runs, the fifth-most in the GLVC, and she coached three all-GLVC hitters.
 
Blanchard was a graduate assistant coach in 2017 and 2018 at Black Hills State University in South Dakota. In her two seasons, the Yellow Jackets improved in the win column each year. Offensively, the team went from a .234 batting average and averaging 2.63 runs a game in the year before Blanchard arrived, to having a .260 batting averaging and averaging over three runs a game in 2018.
 
Blanchard was the head coach at Summerfield High School for the 2015-16 school year, and was an assistant coach at Whiteford High School the year before that. She was also a private instructor for Total Sports Complex during that time span. Blanchard was also a camp coach for softball camps at the University of Michigan.
 
Blanchard was a four-year letterwinner at Michigan from 2011-2014. She helped the Wolverines win four straight Big Ten Championships, and started all four years at the catcher and first base positions. She was a member of the 2013 team which reached the Women’s College World Series. She was a two-time All-Big Ten Performer in 2011 and 2013. She earned second-team all-region honors in 2013, and third-team accolades in her senior season.
 
Blanchard played in 205 games, including 193 starts, as a Wolverine. She finished her career with a .330 batting average, .453 slugging percentage, and a .382 on-base percentage. She scored 61 runs and drove in 124 runners. Among her 191 hits were 34 doubles, two triples, and 11 home runs. She struck out just 54 times in 578 at-bats, including just 26 strikeouts in 374 at-bats her final two seasons. During the team’s World Series season in 2013, she hit .374, had a slugging percentage over .500, and had 29 runs and 46 RBI.
 
Blanchard was an Academic All-Big Ten honoree in 2014 and earned Michigan Athletics Academic Achievement Awards. She graduated from Michigan in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts in History.
 
Blanchard is originally from Petersburg, Mich. She was a four-time first-team all-state performer and academic all-state at Summerfield High School, and was the school’s class Valedictorian.