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

Monica Tantlinger coached her final game here at Cypress College on Saturday (photo by Michael Watkins).

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.

Coach Tantlinger in a 2017 photo

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.