Softball Head Coach - Leslie Huntington

Leslie Huntington

Leslie Huntington enters her seventh season as head coach of the Blugolds. Huntington was named 2004, 2005 and 2006 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Coach of the Year after leading the Blugolds to three straight conference championships. No softball team in WIAC history has won three-straight WIAC championships. Huntington also serves as an athletic trainer and senior women’s administrator (SWA) at UW-Eau Claire.

Coming into 2008, Huntington has posted a career record of 169-85 including a 67-22 (.753 winning percentage) mark in the WIAC regular season games. In 2007, Huntington became UW-Eau Claire’s winningest coach, surpassing JoEllen Bailey’s previous record by eight games. Huntington’s career win total ranks her 6th all-time among WIAC coaches. During that stretch Huntington has coached two All-American, 16 All-Region and 17 first team All-WIAC performers. Huntington and her staff have also received recognition as the National Fastpitch Coaches Association’s (NFCA) Great Lakes Region Coaching Staff of the Year in 2006 and 2007.

Huntington’s involvement in softball reaches far and wide on many different levels. Currently she is serving on the NFCA All-American Committee as the Great Lakes Region representative. Last season Huntington was the chair of the NFCA Top 25 Committee and the WIAC Softball Sport Committee. Huntington was a member of the NFCA Top 25 Committee since 2005. Huntington also serves as the director of Blugold Fastpitch Camps and Clinics in addition to providing instruction to players and coaches in the Altoona, Eau Claire and Seymour youth fastpitch programs.

At Eau Claire Huntington has also been an active participant on numerous committees throughout the university. Currently Huntington is a member of the Campus Strategic Planning Committee and the chancellor-appointed Student Services Study Group. Within the athletic department Huntington has served on several search committees. Huntington has also served as the chair of the Academic Scholarship Committee and was a member of the McPhee/Olson Facility Committee. Outside of athletics Huntington is currently serving on a University Higher Learning Commission Accreditation subcommittee. Huntington had previously served on the University Alcohol Education Committee.

Huntington was the first assistant for Henry Christowski when Simpson College of Indianola, Iowa won the 1997 and 1999 NCAA Division III softball national championships and placed third in the 1996 and 1998 tournaments. Huntington also served as an assistant women’s basketball coach during the 1995-96 season. At Simpson Huntington was also the head athletic trainer for six years. During that time she earned her master’s degree from Iowa State University in health and human performance with an emphasis in sports administration.

Huntington was a two-sport athlete at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. As a senior in 1992, she played first base on Buena Vista’s NCAA Division III national runner-up softball team. As a sophomore, she was a member of the Buena Vista basketball team that advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament before losing to eventual national champion Hope College of Michigan. She earned GTE/CoSIDA Academic All-Region honors in softball.

Following her graduation from Buena Vista in 1992, Huntington spent two years as a certified athletic trainer with the Des Moines Sports Medicine Clinic in Des Moines, Iowa. Huntington also served as the co-head coach of the Nevada Community Schools softball program in Nevada, Iowa during the summer of 2000 and 2001.

Updated 3/21/08