Rebecca Lund Burleigh (born October 13, 1967) is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

coach. Formerly also a

college soccer College soccer is played by teams composed of soccer players who are enrolled in colleges and universities. It is very prominent in United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and as well as in South Africa and the Philippines. The United Kingd ...

player, she is best known for her 26-year tenure as the first

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

of the

Florida Gators women's soccer The Florida Gators women's soccer team represents the University of Florida in the sport of college soccer. The Gators compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They a ...

team at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, where she led the Gators soccer team to a

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA) Division I national championship in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. In 2021, Burleigh had a three-month spell as interim head coach of professional

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

team

Orlando Pride The Orlando Pride is a professional women's soccer team based in Orlando, Florida. The team joined the National Women's Soccer League, the top level of women's soccer in the US, for the 2016 season. It became the tenth team to be added to the l ...

Playing career

During her collegiate playing career at Methodist College, Burleigh was a four-year varsity letterman in soccer for the Lady Monarchs, including Methodist's first four seasons as a varsity program.MUMonarchs.com, Methodist University Hall of Fame
Becky Burleigh
Retrieved May 3, 2011. During her four seasons of play, she helped Methodist to a 55–19–4 (.731) record, four Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (DIAC) championships, three NCAA

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

Tournament appearances, and a trip to the 1988 Division III Final Four. Burleigh played

defense Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense industr ...

for her first three seasons, and served as the team's goalie as a senior. She was a three-time First-Team All-DIAC selection and earned First-Team All-South honors in 1988. In 1999, she was inducted into the Methodist University Hall of Fame. She played under Head Coach Joe Pereira, who went on to a successful career at

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia with ...

following his departure from Methodist. She attributes him as one of the people she admires.

Coaching career

Berry College

In 1989, Burleigh was appointed head coach at

Berry College Berry College is a private liberal arts college in the Mount Berry community adjacent to Rome, Georgia. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Berry College was founded on values based on Christian pri ...

, located in

Mount Berry, Georgia Mount Berry is an unincorporated community contiguous with the main campus of Berry College in Floyd County, Georgia, United States, bordering the city of Rome. Mount Berry Mall, the shopping mall serving Rome, is in the Mount Berry area. It is ...

. She was offered the Berry job within weeks of her own college graduation, at the age of 21. From 1989 to 1993, Burleigh compiled an 82–23–6 overall record during her five seasons at Berry, and her Lady Fury teams won two

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA) national championships in 1990 and 1993.

Florida Gators

Burleigh was named the first head coach of the start-up Florida Gators soccer program on June 28, 1994.GatorZone.com, Soccer, Coaching & Support Staff
Becky Burleigh
. Retrieved May 3, 2011. In 1998, in the Gators soccer program's fourth year of existence, Burleigh coached the Gators to their first NCAA national title by defeating the defending national champion

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

Tar Heels 1–0 in the final.Pat Dooley,
Top 25 Gator teams: #5 1998 Women's soccer
" ''Gainesville Sun'' (June 4, 2009). Retrieved May 3, 2011. The 1998 Gators finished 26–1, their only regular season loss coming to the same

team that the Gators defeated in the NCAA championship final. Players from her 1998 national championship team included All-Americans

Danielle Fotopoulos Danielle Ruth Fotopoulos (; born March 24, 1976) is an American soccer coach and former player. Fotopoulos holds the all-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I records for goals and points, and was a member of the Univer ...

Heather Mitts Heather Mitts Feeley (born Heather Blaine Mitts; June 9, 1978) is an American former professional soccer defender. Mitts played college soccer for the University of Florida, and thereafter, she played professionally in the Women's Professional ...

and Erin Baxter. Burleigh's Gators played in the Eastern Division of the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC). In conference play, her Gators teams won thirteen SEC championships, and ten SEC tournament titles, leading all other SEC teams since the Florida soccer team began play in 1995. Burleigh's later seasons were less successful, and she had losing records in two of her last three seasons as a head coach – the only losing seasons in her career. She announced she would retire at the end of the team's 2020–21 season, which concluded with a 2-0 win over the

Miami Hurricanes The Miami Hurricanes (known informally as The U, UM, or The 'Canes) are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The Hurricanes compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic A ...

on April 3, 2021. As a head coach, Burleigh compiled an overall career record of 513–160–46, with a winning percentage of 0.745. She ranks second in total number of all-time wins among Division I coaches. During her tenure at Florida, Burleigh coached seventeen All-American players.
2010 Florida Gators Soccer Media Supplement
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 5–6, 58–69, 60, 62, 67 (2010). Retrieved May 3, 2011.

Orlando Pride

On July 25, 2021 Burleigh came out of retirement to become the interim head coach of professional

NWSL The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

team

for the remainder of the 2021 season following the midseason resignation of Marc Skinner. Her first game in charge was on July 31, a 1–1 tie with

North Carolina Courage The North Carolina Courage is a professional women's soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded on January 9, 2017, after Stephen Malik acquired National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchise rights from the Western New York F ...

. She coached her first win the following week, a 2–0 victory on the road at

Chicago Red Stars The Chicago Red Stars are a professional women's soccer club based in Bridgeview, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. A founding member of the Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league, they have played in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) sin ...

. Despite moving up to 4th place as Orlando picked up 12 points in Burleigh's first seven games, the team was mathematically eliminated from playoff contention with one game remaining following a 3–1 defeat to

Racing Louisville FC Racing Louisville Football Club is a National Women's Soccer League team based in Louisville, Kentucky. It began playing in 2021 at Lynn Family Stadium. The team is owned by Soccer Holdings LLC, which also owns Louisville City FC of the USL Champ ...

on October 16, part of a four-game losing streak. On October 27, it was announced Burleigh had withdrawn herself from consideration for the permanent head coach job and would end her interim tenure following the final game of the season on October 29. The game extended Orlando's losing streak to five to finish the season as Chicago Red Stars won 1–0, leaving Burleigh with a 3–6–3 record during her interim tenure.

Personal

Burleigh grew up in

Tarpon Springs, Florida Tarpon Springs is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 23,484 at the 2010 census. Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the US. Downtown Tarpon Springs has long been a focal po ...

, where she began to play youth soccer at the age of ten. She graduated ''

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

'' with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in biology from Methodist College (now known as "Methodist University") located in

Fayetteville, North Carolina Fayetteville () is a city in and the county seat of Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. It is best known as the home of Fort Bragg, a major U.S. Army installation northwest of the city. Fayetteville has received the All-America C ...

, in 1989. In 1993, Burleigh earned her

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in exercise science from

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the ...

located in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Coaching record

Coaching honors

;Berry College *

NAIA Women's Soccer Championship The NAIA Women's Soccer Championship is the annual tournament to determine the national champions of NAIA women's collegiate soccer in the United States and Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three terr ...

(2): 1990, 1993 ;Florida Gators *

NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship The NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship, sometimes known as the Women's College Cup, is an American college soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I women's national ...

(1):

* SEC regular season (14): 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 * SEC Women's Soccer Tournament (12): 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015,

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

;Individual *

NSCAA The United Soccer Coaches (formerly known as the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)) is an organization of American soccer coaches founded in 1941. It is the largest soccer coaches organization in the world, with more than 30 ...

National Coach of the Year The AFCA Coach of the Year Award is given annually to a college football coach by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA). The award has had several different sponsors over the years, including Eastman Kodak Corporation, and thus also ...

(1): 1998 *SEC Coach of the Year (4): 1996, 2006, 2008, 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burleigh, Becky 1967 births Living people People from Tarpon Springs, Florida Sportspeople from Pinellas County, Florida Soccer players from Florida American women's soccer players Women's association football defenders Women's association football goalkeepers Methodist Monarchs women's soccer players American women's soccer coaches Female association football managers Berry Vikings women's soccer coaches Florida Gators women's soccer coaches Orlando Pride coaches National Women's Soccer League coaches Georgia State University alumni