Laura Valentino

Biography

Valentino enters her seventh season as the head coach of the UConn softball program in 2025-26. Valentino led the Huskies to one of the most successful seasons in program history in 2025, winning the BIG EAST Tournament Championship for the first time since 2001, bringing the Huskies back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 24 years. Finishing with a 35-19 record on the year, the Huskies have now put together four straight 30 win seasons under Valentino. She coached a conference best, five players to All-BIG EAST First Team honors, and two players to the second team, totaling seven selections. The Huskies claimed back-to-back BIG EAST Players of the Year awards winners in Grace Jenkins (2025) and Lexi Hastings (2024). Cat Petteys earned BIG EAST Freshman of the Year honors, the third player to garner the award under Valentino. UConn also placed four student-athletes to NFCA All-Region teams, the second most in a season in program history. Valentino and her staff guided the Huskies to a record breaking season, surpassing six single season team program records and six individual single season records. As a team, UConn set new program high marks in batting average (.321), run scored (387), home runs (77), doubles (89), RBI (363), walks (195), and total bases (829). Three Huskies each surpassed the previous single season home runs (13) and RBI (47) records, while two Huskies surpassed the previous runs (63) and walks (29) records that were set prior to the 2025 season. I