Leah Marie O'Brien-Amico (born September 9, 1974) is an American, former

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

, author, speaker and sports commentator. She is currently the head coach for the

Florida Vibe Association of Fastpitch Professionals (AFP) is a professional women's fastpitch softball league in the United States consisting of independent teams in collaboration to create a platform for competition at the highest level. The new league began ...

of the

Association of Fastpitch Professionals Association of Fastpitch Professionals (AFP) is a professional women's fastpitch softball league in the United States consisting of independent teams in collaboration to create a platform for competition at the highest level. The new league began ...

(AFP). She is best known for playing

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

from 1993 to 1997, winning three National Championships, and earning gold medals at the

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. She is a USA Softball Hall of Fame honoree having been inducted in 2009.

College career

Born in

Garden Grove, California Garden Grove is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States. The population was 171,949 at the 2020 census. State Route 22, also known as the Garden Grove Freeway, passes through the city in an east–west direction. The west ...

, O'Brien-Amico graduated from Don Lugo High School in nearby Chino in 1992 and attended the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. Playing for the

Arizona Wildcats softball The Arizona Wildcats softball team represents the University of Arizona in NCAA Division I Softball. Having claimed eight national championships (second only to UCLA Bruins softball, UCLA), the team is one of the most successful in the history of ...

team, she was named to the First Team All-

Pac-10 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level for all sports, and its football teams compete in the Football Bowl ...

for her freshman efforts. At the 1993

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States and is held annually in Oklahoma City, OK. The event is held at Devon Park (stadium), Devon Park loca ...

, the Wildcats faced rival

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in the finale and with the only hit allowed, she drove in the game-winning run off

Lisa Fernandez Lisa Maria Fernandez (born February 22, 1971) is an American former softball player and current associate head coach at UCLA Bruins softball, UCLA. She is also the general manager of the Talons for the inaugural 2025 season of the Athletes Unlim ...

. It was Arizona's second title. O'Brien-Amico earned First Team

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

honors to accompany conference honors. It was Arizona's second title. Her 16 doubles were the second best total and still rank top-10 for the Wildcats. Returning to defend their title at the WCWS, O'Brien-Amico hit .750 (9/12 with 5

RBIs A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

, a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

and two doubles) to set the tournament record for

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

. Eventually the Wildcats were able to successfully defend their title, besting the

Cal State Northridge Matadors The Cal State Northridge Matadors (branded as the CSUN Matadors) are the athletic teams that represent California State University, Northridge in Northridge, Los Angeles, California. The Matadors field 17 teams in nineteen sports. The Matadors ...

on May 30, 1994. O'Brien-Amico was perfect at the plate (3/3) and scored two runs against pitchers Jennifer Richardson and Amy Windmiller to be named All-Tournament. For her junior year after red-shirting for the

Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, O'Brien-Amico earned all-season honors for a third straight year. She broke the school record for doubles and her 101 hits was a top-5 record. She still ranks top-10 all-time in both categories. With her third straight appearance in the WCWS finals, O'Brien-Amico and the Wildcats again faced the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF ...

but were defeated 4-2 on May 29, 1995. O'Brien-Amico went 2/3 with an RBI and was again named All-Tournament. The title was later vacated by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

due to rules violations. She earned her final First Team All-American and All-Pac-10 honors. With a career best .467 average, O'Brien-Amico collected 99 hits to rank top-5 for both stats and remains in the top-10 all-time for the Wildcats. Concluding her finals streak at the WCWS, O'Brien-Amico won her third national championship over the

and was a perfect 2/2 with two RBIs and two walks against hurler

Christa Williams Christa Williams (born: Christa Bojarzin 5 February 1926 – 28 or 29 July 2012) was a German pop singer most popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Williams was chosen to represent Switzerland at the Eurovision Song Contest 1959 with the s ...

. She also scored two of Arizona's 10 runs in the mercy rule victory. She was named to the All-Tournament Team for a third series. With combined stats from previous seasons, O'Brien-Amico had a WCWS career of .563 (31/55) with 19 RBIs, two home runs, 4 doubles and 7 walks, striking out just once with a

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at-bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at-bats for a given player, an ...

of .745%. She also hit safely in 17 of 18 games, being

shut out Shut Out may refer to: * Shutout In team sports, a shutout (North American English, US) or clean sheet (Commonwealth English, UK) is a game in which the losing team fails to score. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable ...

just once by Melanie Roche and the

Oklahoma State Cowgirls The Oklahoma State Cowboys and Cowgirls are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater. The program's mascot is a cowboy named Pistol Pete. Oklahoma State participates at the National ...

on May 30, 1993. Beginning the next game of that doubleheader day with the

ULL Ragin' Cajuns The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns are the athletic teams of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The college has been competing athletically since 1901. The Ragin' Cajuns compete in NCAA Division I, fielding 16 varsity teams. Nickname The unive ...

, O'Brien-Amico went on a 15-consecutive-game hit streak ending with her title in 1997. O'Brien-Amico graduated atop the list for the Arizona Wildcats in career average and doubles. She also ranked top-10 for hits in the

and still does at Arizona for her average and doubles.

Coaching career

On March 6, 2024, Amico was named head coach for the

of the AFP.

Team USA

For the Athens Olympics, O'Brien-Amico was the only collegiate athlete selected to the roster and hit .300 in 7 games and was perfect at right field. To open her Olympics career, O'Brien-Amico went 2/3 with a walk in a 10–0 mercy-rule win over

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

. She did not play the gold medal game. At the 2000

Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

she hit under .250 for the tournament. O'Brien-Amico nabbed hits in games with

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

running September 23–25, 2000. She drove in her only RBIs in a 6-0 win over Italy and in the gold medal game was shut out by Japan, though Team USA won 2-1 on September 26. On the "Aiming For Athens" Tour, O'Brien-Amico hit .386 with 43 RBIs, 5 home runs and 9 doubles. Facing the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the college athletics in the United States, athletic teams that represent Stanford University. Stanford's program has won 138 National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA team championships, the List of NCAA schools ...

on February 20, 2004, O'Brien had a tour-high 3 RBIs on a home run to eventually win 9–0. In the Olympics, O'Brien-Amico had a tournament-best 2 RBIs off Melanie Roche of Australia on August 15; the US eventually won 10-0 run-ruling the Australians. She would equal her performance vs.

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

on August 19. In the August 23 gold medal game, O'Brien-Amico had a single as the United States defeated Australia 5-1 to close out their dominating tournament in victory. She hit .200 for her final international tournament.

Personal life

She is the daughter of Frederick G. O'Brien and Denise M. Lynch. In 2002, O'Brien-Amico was inducted into the

Hall of Fame. She now lives in Eastvale, California with her husband Tommy and three children. She currently works in the ministry and occasionally offers color commentary for ESPN.

Statistics

University of Arizona

Team USA

Awards and honors

* Three-time NFCA First-Team

(1994, 1995 and 1997) * WCWS National Champion (1993, 1994 and 1997) * 3-Time Academic All American * 3-Time First-team All-Pacific Region * 4-Time All-

* 3-time ASA

* 1996

Gold Medalist * 1997

"Woman of the Year" (State of

) * 1998 ISF World Championships Gold Medalist * 1999 Pan American Games Gold Medalist * 2000

Gold Medalist * 2002

Hall of Fame * 2002 ISF World Championships Gold Medalist * 2003 Pan American Games Gold Medalist * 2004 Athens Olympics Gold Medalist

References

External links

Player profile

Official website
leah20.com

arizonawildcats.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Leah 1974 births Living people American softball players Softball players from California Arizona Wildcats softball players Olympic softball players for the United States Softball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Softball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Softball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the United States in softball People from Chino, California Sportspeople from Garden Grove, California Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from San Bernardino County, California

College career

Coaching career

Team USA

Personal life

Statistics

University of Arizona

Team USA

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links