Ashley Wade

Biography

Ashley Wade enters her fourth season as the UNCW Softball Head Coach in 2026 after being named to the post in August 2022. Wade, the fifth head coach in program history, inherited the defending 2022 Colonial Athletic Association softball champions and guided the Seahawks back to the top of the league in her second season with the school's second-ever Coastal Athletic Association Championship in 2024. The Seahawks won a program record 18 league games and defended Boseman Field with four wins over four days to earn the CAA's automatic qualifier berth to the NCAA Tournament. Prior to UNCW, Wade spent seven seasons on the staff at Northern Illinois as an assistant and associate head coach. A native of Baltimore, Md., she arrived at Northern Illinois in 2015 and was promoted to Associate Head Coach in 2019 under Head Coach Christina Sutcliffe. During her 13-year coaching career, Wade has worked with two NCAA All-American selections, six CoSIDA Academic All-Americans, 13 NFCA All-Region honorees, 45 All-Conference selections and an NCAA Top-25 Freshman. At Northern Illinois, Wade helped the team rack up 162 wins and their first division title in 16 years when they captured the 2016 Mid-American Conference West Division crown. Wade earned her Master of Science Degree in Sports Management from NIU in 2018 and her Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Stevenson in 2013.