Laura Leonetti begins her third season at the helm of the JWU (Providence) softball program in 2027.
In the Wildcats first season as a member of the Conference of New England (CNE) in 2026, Leonetti was named Coach of the Year after guiding JWU to a 20-16 season (13-7 CNE) and the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament. Leonetti maneuvered through the loss of her No. 1 starting pitcher as well as the conference player of the year from the previous season to guide JWU to its fifth-straight 20-win season. The Wildcats closed the regular season on a 10-game winning streak.
In her first season at the helm of the program in 2025, the Wildcats won 29 games and captured the sixth Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship in program history. JWU then traveled McMinnville, Oregon to compete in the NCAA Tournament and finished 2025 with the fourth-highest win total in program history. For her efforts, she was named GNAC Coach of the Year.
A former National Pro Fastpitch (NPF) player with almost two decades of coaching experience as a college-level assistant, 18U head coach, and longtime private instructor, Leonetti spent the 2024 campaign as an assistant coach at her alma mater, Brown University. She was tasked with managing all aspects of the Bears defense, including skill instruction, player development, defensive practice plans, and teaching defensive conceptions, situational awareness, and game strategy.
In just one season, the Bears improved from sixth in The Ivy League in fielding pct. in 2023 (.965) to second (.972) in 2024 under the tutelage of Leonetti. Prior to her stint at Brown, she spent the summer of 2023 as an assistant coach with the Mystic Schooners of the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL), one of the top wood bat summer leagues in the country. The Schooners finished the regular season with the second-best record in the league. In the spring of 2023, Leonetti was a part-time assistant coach at Wesleyan (CT) University.
Leonetti – who began her coaching career as an assistant at Brown in 2004 – spent two seasons at her alma mater managing the outfielders, providing defensive skill instruction, working with hitters, assisting with practice, game, and travel planning, and helping with player recruitment. She went on to earn a Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 2010, during which time she began working as a softball instructor in Texas. Leonetti developed student-athletes and prepared them to play at the collegiate level. As head coach of the 18U Magic in Missouri City, Texas, she led her team to a regional championship in 2007.
A four-year starter for the Bears (2001-04), Leonetti was a three-time First Team All-Ivy selection (2002-04) and two-year captain (2003-04). She slashed .408/.520/.592 as a senior and posted a perfect 1.000 fielding pct. playing all 39 games at 2B, leading the Bears to an Ivy League title. Leonetti was named First Team All-Northeast Region and won the Marjorie Brown Smith Award for the Outstanding Female Athlete at Brown.
After graduating in 2004, Leonetti was drafted by the Texas Thunder in the NPF before being traded to the New England Riptide, where she started as the right fielder.
An experienced legal consultant, Leonetti spent more than a decade working on a wide range of consulting engagements, helping corporate law departments and law firms improve efficiency and productivity and reduce risk. Leonetti served five years on the Council for the State Bar of Texas Computer & Technology Section.
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