LOUISVILLE, Ky. – After helping lead the 2024 Patriot League champion Boston University softball team to a historic 53-6-1 campaign, associate head coach
Becca Carden has been named the Easton/NFCA Division I Assistant Coach of the Year, the National Fastpitch Coaches Association announced Tuesday afternoon.
In her ninth season on Commonwealth Ave., Carden saw the Terriers become just the third team in Patriot League history to post a perfect conference record (18-0-0) en route to their sixth straight regular season title. They then swept the competition at home to hoist their sixth championship trophy during her tenure and went on to run-rule Horizon League champion Cleveland State during the Norman Regional to tie the 2002 UMass squad for the most wins by an NCAA Division I program located in the Northeast. With the 52-10 record in 2023, BU became the first Northeast program to post 50+ wins in back-to-back seasons.
"This is an incredible honor for an amazing human being," said head coach
Ashley Waters. "Her contributions to BU Softball have been significant. She is the backbone to our program and the reason it runs so efficiently. Her humble nature and willingness to do any task big or small has been a gift to this program. Becca consistently puts everyone's needs above her own, and it gives me immense joy to watch her relish in this moment. Our success, our championships and our academic excellence do not happen without her. I'm honored to coach alongside her."
Working primarily with the outfield and the offense, she helped
Lauren Keleher ('24) improve from a .339 hitter in 2021 to the 2024 Patriot League Player of the Year with a stellar .411 batting average boosted by eight homers and 18 doubles. Keleher finished seventh nationally in hits (83), 21st in doubles and 36th in batting average. Overall the Terriers placed in the top 20 in nine NCAA statistical categories, highlighted by a No. 1 ranking in ERA (1.41), No. 8 finish in fielding percentage (.979) and No. 15 result in batting average (.321). BU also placed in the top 50 in 13 categories.
First joining head coach
Ashley Waters' staff in the summer of 2015 as a volunteer assistant, Carden moved up to assistant the following year and then to most recently associate head coach in in the summer of 2021. She and Waters are the only coaches to have earned NFCA Regional Coaching Staff of the Year each of the past three seasons.
With the NFCA's announcement, BU joins Oklahoma as the only two programs to have multiple coaches earn the award after then-associate head coach Jen McIntyre claimed the honor in its inaugural year back in 2014.
