The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Softball adds Amber Freeman as assistant coach
06.26.2026 | Softball
Freeman spent the past two seasons at Arizona where she helped two Wildcats earn Big 12 Player of the Year honors.
AUSTIN, Texas – Amber Freeman has been named an assistant coach for Texas Softball, head coach Mike White announced Friday. Freeman will work with the offense, catchers and defense.
Freeman comes to the Forty Acres with seven years of coaching experience, including three seasons as a head coach. Freeman spent the last two seasons leading Arizona's offense.
During the 2026 season with Arizona, Freeman coached the Wildcats to a .340 batting average which ranked third in the Big 12 and 10th in single-season program history. Arizona ranked in the top three in the Big 12 in batting average, RBI per game (2nd - 6.64), scoring (2nd - 7.29), RBI (3rd - 365), and total runs (3rd - 401). With Freeman's guidance, Regan Shockey led the Wildcats and the Big 12 with a .451 batting average, the 10th-highest in program history, and Sereniti Trice recorded a .409 batting average to rank seventh in the Big 12. Freeman helped Sydney Stewart earn NFCA first-team All-American, Big 12 Player of the Year, and Big 12 Batting Champion honors after batting .390 with 20 home runs, 76 RBI, a .919 slugging percentage, 42 walks, and a .534 on base percentage. Stewart paced the Big 12 during conference play with a .490 batting average to earn the title of Big 12 Batting Champion. Freeman also helped Stewart to a career .866 slugging percentage during her time at Arizona to set the program's career slugging percentage record, and her .919 slugging percentage in 2026 ranks fourth in single-season program history. Arizona finished the 2026 season 37-18 and 16-8 in the Big 12 with an NCAA Tournament appearance.
In her first season at Arizona in 2025, Freeman oversaw 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 mentored three sluggers – Sydney Stewart (20), Devyn Netz (19), and Miranda Stoddard (15) – achieve 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. Arizona wrapped up the 2025 season with a 48-13 overall record, 17-7 conference mark and hosted the NCAA Tucson Regional.
Freeman comes to Arizona following stints at Georgia (2023), Cal (2022), 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 ranked sixth in the NCAA with 92 home runs, and 23rd with 86 doubles. In addition, the Bulldogs had a .527 slugging percentage which ranked 14th in the nation. Georgia topped the SEC in conference-only play in batting average (.318), home runs per game (1.61), slugging (.578), and doubles per game (1.4). The Dogs' slugging percentage finished second in the country only to Oklahoma while Georgia finished sixth in home runs per game.
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.
