UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State softball head coach Clarisa Crowell completed her staff with the hiring of Jeff Tylka as an assistant coach. Tylka will serve primarily as the hitting coach for the Nittany Lions.
"I am very excited to add Jeff Tylka to our coaching staff, and I would like to welcome him to our Penn State family," said head coach Clarisa Crowell. "Coach Tylka's experience and wealth of knowledge will be a tremendous asset to our program, and I am confident that he will help our team improve both offensively and defensively. Recruiting will be essential, and he has proven to be a great evaluator while his recruiting connections in the Midwest will be extremely beneficial for the future of our program. I believe that Coach Tylka will be a great fit for our university, department and program, and we are excited to welcome him and his family to Penn State."
"I want to thank Sandy Barbour, Charmelle Green and Clarisa Crowell for giving me this opportunity to be part of the Nittany Lion family," said Tylka. "During the interview process I couldn't help but get excited about Coach Crowell's vision for Penn State softball. To work at a prestigious university and in a conference like the Big Ten is truly a dream come true for me. I am excited to continue to build Penn State softball into a championship program and cannot wait to get to Happy Valley to work with our student-athletes. We Are!"
Tylka comes to Happy Valley most recently from Elite Baseball/Softball Training in Chicago, Illinois, where he was the director of fastpitch and a hitting instructor. Tylka oversaw numerous hitting classes and training seminars while he also tested and wrote movement programs for all softball players.
He worked with softball Olympians, MLB players, Division I athletes and youth players to help develop their swings and help them use the best swing for their movement capabilities. Tylka learned from top instructors Justin Stone and Travis Kerber. Stone is currently the Director of Hitting for the Chicago Cubs.
Prior to working at Elite, Tylka was the head softball coach at Loyola University in Chicago (LUC) from 2015-19. Tylka holds the third-highest win mark among LUC head coaches with 111 wins under his belt. He instituted multiple offensive concepts and changes in his five seasons at the helm that led the Ramblers to the top batting average in program history during the 2019 season (.303).
During the 2019 season, the Ramblers also established single-season team records for runs (239), hits (403) and RBI (214) while reaching the 25-win benchmark for the second time in the last three seasons. Tylka guided Allyson Ivey to Loyola single-season records for RBI (54) and batting average (.460, 63-for-137) while the batting average was also a Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) record. Ivey earned First Team All-MVC honors and First Team NFCA All-Midwest Region accolades, to be only Loyola's second-ever first team all-district winner. Additionally, Shannon McGee and Jessica Shields earned second team and third team NFCA All-Midwest honors, respectively, to create a school record amount of all-region players.
In 2018, Tylka coached the Ramblers to 23 victories, including a 8-4 win at Notre Dame, the program's first decision over a Power 5 conference opponent since 2016. He helped McGee to first team All-MVC accolades as she batted a team-best .372 while only striking out seven times all season.
In 2017, Tylka steered his squad to its most successful season in four years, earning a berth in the conference tournament for the first time since 2014. The young Ramblers team, one of the youngest in the nation, won 27 games, the program's most since 2013, including a blazing 14-0 start, the best in program history and a program record for most consecutive victories.
The 2016 LUC team improved in the win column and hit .275 as a team. Tylka mentored then-junior Erica Nagel to a Loyola and MVC record by hitting .453 with 72 hits. Nagel closed her career with 169 career hits for sixth all-time in the school record books.
Tylka coached then-freshman Brooke Wyderski to lead the team in three triple-crown categories. She set Loyola freshman records in home runs (12) and RBI (37) while hitting at a .302 clip. Ashley Rogers also became the first LUC student-athlete to earn an Abraham Lincoln Civic Engagement Award, presented to one senior from each of the state's four-year, degree-granting colleges and universities for excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities.
Before being named the softball skipper, Tylka spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Loyola, primarily working with the hitters. The Ramblers had 11 players earn all-conference honors during his tenure and the offense set a school record with 44 home runs in 2013.
In 2014, the Ramblers concluded their first season in the MVC and advanced to the title game of the conference championship. Tylka coached the offensive to single-season school records with 193 RBI and 67 doubles.
Four Loyola players recorded All-Horizon League honors in 2013. Then-senior Brooke Andersen became the first player in school history to earn first team all-conference accolades for four-straight years as Tylka mentored the lefty swinger to close out her career as the school's all-time lead in at-bats (637), hits (215) and runs (116), and her .338 career batting average ranks among the top five.
In his first season at Loyola in 2012, Tylka helped the Ramblers to a second-place finish in the Horizon League regular-season standings. The team recorded the second-most conference wins in program history with 15 while making its first appearance in the league championship title game since 2004. The offense batted .274 under Tylka that season and five players earned All-Horizon League selections.
Under Tylka's eight-year tutelage at Loyola, seven players earned All-Region status and 22 were named NFCA Scholar-Athletes for having a GPA of 3.50 or higher, including a program 10 in the 2012-13 academic year. Additionally, 12 student-athletes recorded all-conference honors.
Tylka graduated with a degree in economics from Knox College in 2001 and a masters in education from St. Mary's University in Minnesota in 2004. Tylka was a three-sport athlete at Knox College, playing baseball, football and basketball.
Tylka and his wife, Amanda, have two sons, Colton and Jace.
