A rising star in the college coaching ranks, Kylee Baker (née Sullivan) enters her third season as the head coach of the Navy women’s golf team in 2025-26. Officially named the next head coach for Navy in January 2024, Baker held the role on an interim basis during the fall of 2023 after spending her first two seasons in Annapolis as an assistant coach.
Baker’s first two seasons in charge have been banner years, capturing back-to-back Patriot League Championship, having two-straight Patriot League Championship medalists and producing eighth All-Patriot League selections, while Baker has picked up back-to-back Coach of the Year honors and overseen the program’s first Patriot League Golfer of the Year and Rookie of the Year winners.
Going 2-for-2, Baker’s Midshipmen captured their second-straight Patriot League Championship in 2024-25, winning the tournament by a 38-stroke margin and punching a ticket to the NCAA Gold Canyon Regional. The season included three first-place and five top-5 finishes for the Mids, saw six different program records broken and featured two individual medals.
Individually, 2024-25 had Emma Tang named the Patriot League Golfer of the Year while Megan Kirkpatrick earned the league's Rookie-of-the-Year honors, becoming the first Navy golfers in program history to win those respective awards. Baker completed the awards sweep by earning her second-straight Patriot League Coach of the Year accolade, marking the fifth time a Navy coach has won the award. Tang also became the second-straight Navy golfer to take home the individual medal at the Patriot League Championship, highlighting a program-record five All-Patriot League honorees.
In her first season at the helm, the Mids made history by claiming the 2024 Patriot League Championship, the second league title in program history, while posting a program-record league championship score of 42-over par 882. Baker’s squad then tallied the program’s best finish yet at the NCAA Regionals, placing 10th in the 2024 Wake Forest Regional. The Patriot League title and NCAA berth capped off a campaign that featured five top-5 finishes, two team tournament crowns and three individual medalists.
Additionally, Stephanie Lee became the first golfer in program history to claim individual medalist honors at the Patriot League Championship, as here first-place finish highlighted the Mids’ three All-Patriot League First Team nods, along with Sue Lee finishing runner-up and Emma Tang tying for fifth. For their season-long efforts, Baker was named the 2024 Patriot League Coach of the Year while Stephanie Lee was honored as the Patriot League Women’s Golf Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
In her two seasons as an assistant coach under Nadia Ste-Marie, Baker helped the Mids earn five team tournament titles and four All-Patriot League selections while also setting multiple program records, including a program-low 303.9 season scoring average in 2022-23.
In her second season as an assistant at Navy, Baker helped steer the Mids to a program-low 303.9 scoring average, as Navy collected a program-best four team titles and two individual medalist honors. Under Baker and then-head coach Nadia Ste-Marie, the 2022-23 edition of the Mids set program records for individual 54-hole score, individual 36-hole score, individual low round, team low round, team 54-hole score and team 36-hole score. The season also saw Mara Hirtle become the first Midsiphman with multiple tournament wins in her collegiate career and lower her career scoring average to the second-lowest in program history. Additionally, Hirtle racked up All-Patriot League Second Team honors with a ninth-place finish at the Patriot League Championship, while Navy collectively shot the lowest league championship score in program history at 32-over par 896.
During her first season in 2021-22, Baker helped lead the Mids to a third-place finish at the 2022 Patriot League Championship with a three-round score of 76-over par 940, and was a crucial piece in guiding the Mids to a team scoring average of 309.4, the third-best average for a season in team history.
Navy opened its 2021-22 regular season with a bang, winning the Bucknell Invitational by 39 strokes with a 45-over par 885. The 885 was the best score for a 54-hole tournament in program history, besting the previous low score by nine strokes. The Midshipmen recorded a total of five top-five finishes over their nine tournaments, including finishing second at the Lehigh Invitational, third in the Navy Fall Invitational, third at the Patriot League Championship and fifth at the Kingsmill Intercollegiate.
For the efforts accrued under the direction of Sullivan, three Mids earned All-Patriot League recognition, including Angelina Chan being named a first-team honoree for the second-straight season. In addition to Chan garnering all-league recognition, the pairing of Mara Hirtle and Stephanie Lee earned second-team honors.
Baker joined the Mids’ coaching staff after spending the previous two seasons as an assistant coach of the Ferris State men’s and women’s golf programs. Additionally, Baker served as the interim head coach of the Bulldog men’s and women’s golf programs beginning in November 2020.
During her tenure at Ferris State, Baker helped guide the Bulldog golf programs to a combined 21 top-five finishes in addition to capturing the 2021 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Men's Golf Championship.
Additionally, under the tutelage of Baker, eight Bulldog student-athletes garnered All-GLIAC recognition.
As a student-athlete, Baker was a member of the women's golf program at Oakland University where she garnered Second Team All-Horizon League honors as a senior after appearing in 17 rounds and recording a season-scoring average of 76.65. Baker tied the school record for the lowest individual round with a 68 and recorded a 54-hole, career-best score of 221 at the Spring Break Shootout during the 2018-19 season.
As a junior, she tied for third at the Horizon League Tournament after shooting a 229 along with becoming the first Oakland player since 2003 to win multiple tournament titles in the same season. Baker finished her collegiate career ranking fifth in program history in all-time scoring average (78.67)
In addition to her accomplishments on the course, Baker was named to the Horizon League Academic Honor Roll four times and garnered Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) All-American Scholar Team honors twice.
Baker and her husband Andrew reside in Severna Park, Md.
