LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Blugolds.com) — The National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) announced former Creighton University head coach Mary Higgins and current University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire head coach Leslie Huntington are the two 2021 inductees for the NFCA Hall of Fame.
Huntington, who is set to coach her 20th season at UW-Eau Claire in 2021, guided the Blugolds to the NCAA Division III championship in 2008, after a third-place national finish the previous spring. She has compiled a 499-261-2 record over the past 19 seasons.
She was a two-time Division III national champion (1997, 1999) and finished third twice (1996, 1998) over a four-year span as the top assistant for NFCA Hall of Famer Henry Christowski at Simpson College.
As a player for NFCA Hall of Famer Marge Willadsen at Buena Vista University, Huntington was a national runner-up in Division III softball in 1992, and also reached the Elite Eight for the Beavers' women's basketball team in 1990.
Huntington spent six years as the head athletic trainer at Simpson and worked two years as a certified athletic trainer for the Des Moines Sports Medicine Clinic. In 2000 and 2001, she served as co-head coach of the softball team at Nevada Community Schools, and she currently provides instruction to young players through various local fastpitch programs and her own Blugold Fastpitch Camps and Clinics. She also has her own consulting business, More Than A Game Performance.
Huntington, the Blugolds' all-time winningest coach, has coached seven All-Americans, 42 recipients of All-Region recognition, 49 named First Team All-WIAC selections, and eight Academic All-District selections and one Academic All-American. Her coaching staff earned national recognition in 2008 when they received the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Coaching Staff of the Year award. In 2006 and 2007 the coaching staff earned NFCA Great Lakes Region Coaching Staff of the Year.
"The numbers speak for themselves and prove how Coach Huntington has made UW-Eau Claire Softball a program that is known for excellence on so many levels," Blugolds assistant athletic director Jill (Janke) Millis, a member of the 2008 national championship team, wrote in a recommendation letter, "but her character, ethics, sportsmanship, integrity and honesty have made her an excellent leader and produced great results not only on the field, but off it."
"Leslie has served as a mentor for opposing coaches in the league, as well as their fiercest competitor," associate athletic director, senior woman administrator and Huntington's longtime Blugolds softball assistant Robin Baker in her nomination. "She puts in long hours each day to develop detailed practice plans, leadership training sessions and mental performance lessons to leave no stone unturned in helping each of her student-athletes become the best version of themselves."
Huntington and Higgins will be inducted during a combined in-person ceremony with the 2020 induction trio of Donna Fields (St. Mary's University), Kris Herman (Williams College) and Heinz Mueller (Phoenix College) at next year's NFCA Convention on Dec. 10 in Las Vegas.
