Janet Lloyd enters her 32nd season at the helm of the Chapman softball program in 2025-26. She is one of the winninges Division III coaches of all-time, ranking in the top-10 for wins among active Division III head coaches. With 781 career wins, she could become just the 19th head coach in Division III history and ninth active Division III coach to reach 800 wins.
Chapman softball has risen to a perennial leader in the SCIAC as the Panthers have played in five consecutive SCIAC Tournament championship games, winning two of them (2022 and 2025). In 2024, the Panthers earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.
Lloyd's Panthers were back on the national scene with a trip to the regional final in 2025 but fell 5-3 to eventual World Series participant Linfield. Chapman's three trips to the NCAA postseason in four years recaptured the dominance of the program from the mid-90s until the early 2000s.
After becoming co-head coach in 1995, then assuming sole responsibility in 1999, the Panthers developed a reputation as one of the top Division III programs in the nation. Chapman made the playoffs 12 times in a 14-year span (1995-2008), earning seven regional championships and a national championship (1995) along the way. Twice (2003 and '05) Lloyd and her staff have been named West Region Coaching Staff of the Year. The accomplishments of Janet's players are staggering: 94Â All-Region selections, 24Â All-Americans and three Academic All-Americans.
She recorded her 535th career victory in March 2013, surpassing her father Lisle as Chapman's all-time winningest coach. Janet and her dad (who passed away in 2002) have amassed nearly 1,200 wins since 1983 and won well over 60 percent of their games.
In 2013, the Panthers entered new territory as they joined the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Lloyd's team did not miss a beat, posting 24 wins in back-to-back years and earning a berth in the SCIAC Tournament in both seasons.
In 2022, Lloyd posted her best record in 15 years winning 28 games, in 2007 Lloyd and the Panthers finished with a record of 29-13, and leading the Panthers to the Seguin Regional against Texas Lutheran. Lloyd reached the tournament after securing a SCIAC title, the first since joining the conference in 2013.
In 2017, Lloyd became the first Panther coach in any sport to reach 600 career wins. With the accomplishment under her belt, she led the Panthers on a late season surge back into the SCIAC Tournament for the third time in five years. She led the Panthers back to the SCIAC Tournament in 2019, finishing third in the conference standings. The 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although the pandemic delayed the start of the 2021 season, Lloyd led the Panthers to a second place finish in the SCIAC and advanced to the SCIAC Tournament championship game for the first time.
Lloyd came to Chapman as a player in 1983, transferring from Cal State Fullerton, then joined the coaching staff full-time in 1985 as an assistant to her father, Lisle. She earned All-America honors at Fullerton, leading the nation in home runs two straight seasons and leading the Titans to a third-place finish in the Women's College World Series. She still ranks ninth in Titans history with a .481 career slugging percentage and her 15 home runs in 1981 are second most in a single-season. During her playing days at Chapman, she was also named to the All-America team.
