Amber Freeman was hired as Arizona's third assistant coach in August 2024 and will focus on coaching the hitters and catchers.
“We are so excited to welcome Amber to the Arizona family!” said head coach Caitlin Lowe. “She is a player-centric coach who strives to make everyone around her better. She was an incredible player during her career, both athletically and academically, and she has continued to develop elite athletes at the college level. We can’t wait to have her in Tucson!”
In her first season at Arizona in 2025, Freeman guided the best offense in the Big 12 with a .348 batting average and 557 hits. Additionally, the Wildcats led the conference in home runs (82), on-base percentage (.437), RBI (388), scoring (7.10), slugging percentage (.571), total runs (433), and triples (19). Freeman helped three sluggers – Sydney Stewart (20), Devyn Netz (19), and Miranda Stoddard (15) – hit double-digit home runs and guided three Wildcats to record batting averages of above .400 for the first time since 2004. Freeman improved Arizona’s slugging percentage to .571 (up from .527 in 2024) which ranks ninth in program history. She also helped the Wildcats hit 19 triples, the most for an Arizona team since 1992 and the sixth-best mark in program history. Freeman coached right fielder Kaiah Altmeyer to a Big 12-leading 19 doubles and helped center fielder Regan Shockey record 88 hits to rank second in the Big 12.
Freeman comes to Arizona following stints at Georgia, Cal, and Vanguard University and is part of the USA Softball coaching pool. At Georgia, Freeman helped the Bulldogs finish with a 43-19 record and a Super Regional appearance. With her guidance, Georgia’s offense rank sixth in the NCAA with 92 home runs, eighth with 1.48 home runs/game, and 23rd with 86 doubles. In addition, the Bulldogs had a .527 slugging percentage which ranked 14th in the nation.
Prior to Georgia, Freeman was the pitching coach for Cal in the 2022-23 season, helping the Golden Bears to a 35-21-1 record and an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Before her season at Cal, Freeman was the head coach at Vanguard University for three years from 2020-22 and helped the Lions to an overall record of 82-36.
Collegiately, Freeman was a standout catcher at Arizona State from 2012-15, earning NFCA All-American honors three times and was named the 2013 Pac-12 Player of the Year. She remains ranked fourth in ASU history with 56 career home runs and fifth with 197 career RBI and 46 career doubles. Freeman also earned 2015 Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors and was a two-time Academic All-American.
Freeman was picked by the USSSA Pride as the 11th overall pick in the 2015 NPF Draft. She also a member of the 2010 Pan-American U-18 gold medal team, the 2011 ISF Junior World Champion team, and the 2013 World Cup silver medal team with USA Softball.
