Lauren Polak is entering her fourth season as assistant softball coach at Oberlin College in 2025-26. After working with the team in the fall of 2022 on a volunteer basis, Polak was promoted to a full-time assistant coach in January of 2023.
In her first season working with the pitching staff, Polak guided the Yeowomen to their lowest team ERA since 2014 with a mark of 4.66. Rookie Haley Alspach recorded 59 strikeouts, tying for fifth all-time in school history. During her tenure at Oberlin, Polak has helped guide four All-North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) recipients, 21 NCAC All-Academic honorees, 12 College Sports Communications selections, 27 National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) scholar athletes, and two NFCA Academic teams.
Prior to her arrival in Oberlin, Polak spent the 2022 season as the head coach of Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio. Polak's coaching career started in 2015 at York College (Pennsylvania), where she worked with the team’s hitters and pitchers. In her only season with the Spartans, she helped guide them to 25 wins and a team ERA of just 2.48, which was the lowest of any Spartan team in the previous five years. Additionally, she mentored Melissa Jurkiewicz to First-Team Middle Atlantic Conference honors after she recorded 13 wins and a 1.89 ERA.
A four-year starter and 2014 team captain at Washington College (Maryland), Polak was a two-time all-conference selection and helped the Shorewomen earn the Centennial Conference Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2013. A career .381 hitter, Polak started 165 of 167 games she played in, producing 219 hits, 57 doubles, and 77 RBIs, while scoring 110 runs.
Polak graduated from Washington College in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in business management.
