Kentucky has signed head coach Rachel Lawson to a contract extension that will keep her in Lexington through the 2023 season.
Lawson had signed a contract extension in the summer of 2017, but reportedly garnered interest from Oregon and Texas for their then-vacant head coaching positions this offseason.
The contract, which JWOS viewed a copy of, allots Lawson a $300,000 base salary. That number moves her into the upper echelon of head coaching salaries in Division I. The contract also includes non-cumulative incentive bonuses for an SEC regular-season championship; SEC tournament championship; Super Regional appearance; Women’s College World Series appearance; WCWS championship series appearance; and a national championship.
2019 will mark Lawson’s 12th season as the Wildcats’ head coach; under her guidance, the squad has posted a 396-253 since she took the program’s reins in 2007. Most recently, in 2018, the Wildcats posted a 35-21 overall record, including an 8-15 record in SEC play. Earning the #16 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, the squad breezed through their regional and beat #1 Oregon in the first game of the Super Regional before being beaten in the best-of-three series.
The Wildcats reached the Women’s College World Series in 2014 for the first time in program history and have reached the Super Regional round five times under Lawson’s leadership.
A UMass alum, Lawson coached at Western Kentucky and Maryland before joining the Kentucky program.
