Tennessee Softball Reportedly Making Major Coaching Staff Changes
The Tennessee softball program's coaching staff is reportedly undergoing a couple of changes following a semifinal finish at the 2026 Women's College World Series.
Craig Snider and Stephanie Sanders will not be retained, according to Cora Hall of Knox News and Justin McLeod of D1 Softball.
An anonymous sources confirmed with Hall that it was a mutual decision. The source requested anonymity because an official announcement has not been made.
Snider served as Tennessee's primary hitting coach since joining Karen Weekly's staff in June 2024. Sanders was the secondary hitting coach, coached first base, and worked with the defense and catchers.
Tennessee reached the semifinals without a loss in the 2026 WCWS before losing twice to eventual national champion, Texas, by scores of 5-2 and 4-0.
The Lady Vols offense struggled to find consistent production all season, ranking in the bottom half of the Southeastern Conference with a .281 batting average (12th), a .385 on-base percentage (11th), and a .496 slugging percentage (10th). Tennessee scored 322 runs in 2026, which was good for 10th. Tennessee also struck out 249 times for the seventh-most in the league.
Only one player, Sophia Knight, finished the season above .300. Tennessee also had four players with 10-plus home runs and one player with 40-plus RBIs.
Snider joined Rocky Top after two seasons as head coach of Texas Tech. In Lubbock, Snider led the Red Raiders to a record of 60-43. While there, his team recorded the most doubles (181), doubles per game (1.76), home runs (134), home runs per game (1.30), RBIs (562), RBIs per game (5.46) and the highest slugging percentage (.537) over two years in program history. On top of that, 13 Red Raiders combined to set 88 career highs – the most in the country for the 2024 season.
Before Texas Tech, Snider spent time at Texas A&M, Florida State, Stephen F. Austin, Oklahoma, Centenary, and Lindsey Wilson.
Snider spent eight season with the Seminoles and helped lead them to a national title in 2018. FSU won 11 Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and tournament championships, seven NCAA Super Regionals and made three WCWS appearances with Snider on staff.
Sanders was not actively coaching when she was hired by Weekly but worked as the Penn State recruiting coordinator, while also coaching the outfielders and catchers during 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Before Penn State, Sanders spent two seasons at Miami (Ohio) and two seasons at Villanova. She also spent one season at Saginaw Valley State.
Sanders was a four-year letter winner at Michigan State, where she appeared in 177 career games.
Sanders and Snider married in June 2024.
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Maren Angus-Coombs was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has been a sports writer since 2008. She has been covering college softball since 2016 for various outlets including Softball America, ESPNW and Hurrdat Sports. She is currently the managing editor of Softball On SI and also serves as an analyst for Nebraska softball games on Nebraska Public Media and B1G+.