Carolina reportedly to hire former player Smith Lyon as softball coach after record season at Marshall

By R.L. Bynum

Carolina will hire former Tar Heels player Megan Smith Lyon as its softball coach, according to a report Saturday by Extra Innings Softball.

Smith Lyon, who graduated from UNC in 1999, has spent the last five seasons at Marshall, where her teams went 160–70. Last season, the Thundering Herd went 45–10 for a program-high win total, won the Sun Belt Conference East Division title and went on a program-record 23-game win streak.

When Marshall beat No. 24 Virginia Tech 2–1 on April 25, it was the program’s first win over a ranked team in 15 years. Her 16-season record as a head coach is 553–335.

A Walkertown, N.C., native, she would replace 38-year veteran coach Donna Papa, who retired on May 26 after UNC went 26–28 overall and 13–10 in the AC last season.

Her assistant coach at Marshall is her husband Cory Lyon, who was the head coach at Louisiana-Monroe for four seasons before joining the Marshall staff five seasons ago.

Smith Lyon played third base for the Tar Heels from 1996 to 1999 and was the team’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player her senior season. She still drove in a school-record seven runs in a game.

Before taking over the Marshall program, Smith Lyon was 273–204 in nine seasons at Kansas, 41-20 in one season at Western Carolina and 79–41 in two seasons at Young Harris, a junior college in Georgia. Between her jobs at Western Carolina and Kansas, she spent the 2004 season as an assistant coach on the UNC staff. In her one season at WCU, she earned Southern Conference Coach of the Year honors. She was an assistant coach at LSU from 2007 to 2009.

When Marshall hired Smith Lyon, Papa was full of praise.

“She will bring integrity and a strong work ethic to the program,” Papa said. “Megan prides herself on preparation and organization as well as creating a competitive environment. She will look to create a family atmosphere and build and sustain a culture of pride and success.”

Before she retired, Papa was the fifth-longest tenured head coach in any sport in Carolina history.