The 2025 season was Joe Kinsella's 19th at Lake Forest College and 25th as a collegiate head coach. The five-time Midwest Conference Coach of the Year owns a 442-270-4 overall record and impressive 222-38 mark in MWC play during his Forester career.
Under Kinsella's direction, the 2025 Foresters posted a 28-16-1 overall record, captured their second straight conference title with a 14-2 mark in league play, and hosted and won the 205 MWC Tournament. Kyla Chevalier, Riley Stiles, and MWC Position Player of the Year Emmie Nyen were named First Team All-MWC while four other Foresters were named to the second team. Nyen was also a First Team All-Region IX selection by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association while Stiles was named to the second team and Kaia Mismash the third.
The 2025 MWC championship was the program's eighth in the last 11 full seasons and Lake Forest has advanced to every four-team MWC Tournament since 2000. The Foresters have claimed five conference tourney titles and earned a berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament six times during Kinsella's tenure. They have also won a total of 10 NCAA Tournament games and a regional tournament during that time.
Kinsella's players have earned 94 all-conference awards and 16 MWC Player or Pitcher of the Year honors in the last 19 years. He has also coached Lake Forest players to 34 All-Region honors from the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.
A program record 19 Foresters were named Academic All-MWC in 2025, giving the team 163 selections since Kinsella took over as head coach. They have also earned the MWC Elite 20 Award five times since 2016. In addition, five of his players received Academic All-District® honors from College Sports Communicators in 2025 and Josie Klein was named First Team Academic All-America® by the same organization in 2022.
Lake Forest has excelled in numerous statistical categories under Kinsella's direction. Members of the program set or tied a dozen school records in 2025 and the program's top marks in 73 different categories have been recorded during Kinsella's time as head coach. Among the records set during his tenure is the 2015 team's 35 victories en route to an NCAA Regional Tournament title and appearance in the Super Regional round. In addition, Lake Forest has led the conference in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, runs, runs batted in, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, total bases, stolen bases, walks, hit by pitch, earned run average, opponent batting average, saves, strikeouts, putouts, assists, and fielding percentage during Kinsella's tenure.
Kinsella's 200th career victory was the Foresters' last of 2010, his 300th was earned during the 2015 season, and his 400th late in 2019. Triumph number 500 came against Monmouth College during the final doubleheader of 2023 and he reached 400 victories as Lake Forest's head coach at Illinois College on April 14, 2024.
Kinsella was the head coach at Millsaps College for six years before coming to Lake Forest. He took over a 1-26 program at Milsaps and directed it to three Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference West Division championships, one league title, and an NCAA Regional third-place finish. Individual Lady Majors were named All-SCAC 38 times, earned 36 Academic All-SCAC honors, and were voted SCAC Players of the Year twice during his six seasons. He was named the conference’s Coach of the Year in 2003. He also founded and directed Joe Kinsella’s Major Impact Softball Camps LLC, which he ran throughout Mississippi during the summer. In addition to softball, he was an assistant football coach from 2000-03.
Prior to coaching at Millsaps, Kinsella was the head coach at Dakota Wesleyan University for one year, an assistant softball and football coach at Illinois Wesleyan University for two seasons, a campus minister at St. Patrick High School in Chicago, Illinois for a year, and a softball, track & field, and cross country coach at Resurrection High School in Chicago for three seasons.
Kinsella graduated from Joliet Catholic High School in Joliet, Illinois, and Illinois Wesleyan University. His high school football team captured a state title and his college squad advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
He resides in Lake Forest with his children Aiden, Caeli, Zoe, Greyson, and Liam.
