Becky Burleigh

Becky co-founded the What Drives Winning Conference with her business partner Brett Ledbetter. Becky and Brett work with a variety colleges and universities across the country as thinking partners in the pursuit of high performance. 

The two also team up to teach High Performance coaching on the masters level in the college of health and human performance at the University of Florida. 

Athletic and Coaching Bio

In 26 seasons at the helm of the UF soccer team, Burleigh, 55, led UF to a NCAA Championship, two NCAA College Cup appearances, 14 Southeastern Conference titles and 22 NCAA Championships berths. Along the way, Burleigh picked up National (1998) and SEC Coach of the Year (2012, ‘10, ‘08, ‘00 & '96) honors. One of two females (and only in DI) in NCAA soccer history with 500 career wins, Burleigh finished her 31-season coaching career in the top 10 on two NCAA Division I Winningest Coaches charts:

• 74.5 percentage  No. 8

• 513 wins              No. 4

The 1998 seasons culmination with a 1-0 victory over North Carolina for the NCAA Championship marked a remarkable job by Burleigh, as the program she built from its beginnings used a four-year fast track to the national crown. In 1998, Florida set season marks for best record (26-1), highest national ranking (No. 1), and highest NCAA Championships seeding (No. 2). Florida captured its third consecutive SEC Tournament title and advanced to its first-ever NCAA College Cup. By taking UF to the College Cup, Burleigh became only the second female coach to lead her team to the NCAA semifinals and the first to win the NCAA crown. Burleigh also received the 1998 NSCAA/adidas, College Soccer Weekly and Soccer Buzz National Coach of the Year awards.

Those early successes evolved into the Gator soccer team being a regular among the nation’s ranked teams. Over the course of the program’s 26 years under Burleigh, Florida has:

•  22 NCAA Championships’ berths (1996-2001; 2003-2017; 2019)

•  Two NCAA College Cup appearances (1998, 2001), winning NCAA title in 1998

•  14 SEC team titles (1996-2001; 2006-2010; 2012-13, 2015)

•  12 SEC Tournament titles (1996-01; 2004; 2007, 2010, 2012, 2015-16)

Florida’s 22 overall NCAA appearances is 12 th  among Division I programs. Among the top-15 teams in NCAA appearances, Florida is the youngest (25 seasons).

Prior to being named Florida’s first head soccer coach, Burleigh coached the Berry (Ga.) College Lady Fury for five seasons (1989-93), when she compiled an 82-23-6 overall record. During her five-year coaching tenure at Berry, Burleigh guided the Lady Fury to two NAIA national championships (1990 and 1993) and was also named NAIA National Coach of the Year during the same two seasons. Burleigh was named NAIA.

Regional Coach of the Year in her first season as head coach at Berry in 1989, when her squad finished as the national runner-up. At Berry, Burleigh compiled a 76.6 win percentage, as she lost only seven games to NAIA opponents during her five seasons.

Burleigh has coached 22 United Soccer Coaches All-Americans, 11 NAIA All- Americans, 51 All-SEC players, 174 student-athletes on the All-SEC Academic Honor Roll, seven CoSIDA Academic All-Americans with 11 honors and 16 student-athletes honored as United Soccer Coaches Academic All-Americans.

As a student-athlete, Burleigh played her collegiate ball at Methodist College in Fayetteville, N.C., where she was a four-year letterwinner. In her senior year, the Tarpon Springs, Fla., native served as team captain and was named to the All-South team as well as the team’s Most Valuable Player from her goalkeeper position. Burleigh graduated Magna Cum Laude from Methodist in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. In the fall of 1999, Burleigh was inducted into the Methodist Hall of Fame. She earned her master’s degree from Georgia State University in 1993.

She was inducted into the USA South Hall of Fame in the spring of 2015 and the Methodist University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999. Becky became the interim Head Coach for the professional club, the Orlando Pride of the NWSL, from July-December of 2021.

Becky and Celia Slater married in March of 2018. They are pet parents to four dogs - Loosey, Rose, Buddy and Large Marge.

Let's Connect!

beckyb@gators.ufl.edu