Ashleigh Ackerman enters her sixth season as the assistant coach for Mines women's basketball in 2020-21.
Ackerman has spent five seasons in Golden as an assistant coach and one season as a volunteer assistant where she has aided in practice, game management, scouting and headed up special events and summer camps. Since coming on as the fulltime assistant coach in 2015-16, the Orediggers have qualified for five straight RMAC Tournaments with five straight campaigns of 15 wins or more. Mines has gone 106-69 with Ackerman as an assistant and seen 14 All-RMAC honorees, the RMAC Player of the Year, RMAC Academic Player of the Year, two 1,000-point scorers and one RMAC Freshman of the Year come through the program.
As a volunteer assistant coach in 2014-15 she helped set the foundation for Mines' 2015-16 RMAC championship run with three all-RMAC selections in her first campaign as the fulltime assistant. The title marked the Orediggers' first RMAC crown in more than 30 years with a 21-7 record as they went to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history. The 2015-16 team set program records for wins (21), conference victories (19) and consecutive victories (13). On the national stage, the Orediggers were third in all of NCAA Division II in field goal percentage defense (33.5%), fifth in rebound margin (9.7) and sixth in rebounds per game (46.89). They led the RMAC in all those categories as well as blocked shots per game (4.0), total rebound (1,313) and offensive rebounds per game (15). The 2015-16 season also brought about two First-Team All-RMAC performers in Courtney Martin and Laura Tyree while Anna Kollmorgen was named to the All-RMAC Honorable Mention team.
Before Mines, Ackerman spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Colorado College (2009-12) where she was primarily responsible for individual player development, practice planning, game strategy, recruiting and statistical analysis. During the 2011-12 season she helped the Tigers to a winning season. While at CC she also was the Assistant Director for Intramural Sport and Student Activities.
After leaving Colorado College she spent a year working at Trinidad State Junior College as an Admissions and Recruitment Specialist.
No stranger to the RMAC, Ackerman was a four-year letter winner at CSU-Pueblo where she helped the Thunderwolves win two RMAC Championships. In 2006, Ackerman helped Pueblo on an improbable run to a RMAC Tournament Championship and the program's first ever NCAA Tournament appearance. She earned All-RMAC academic honors, was the team captain during her final season and also served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.
A native of Trinidad, Colo., Ackerman earned her bachelor's degree in exercise science at CSU-Pueblo and has a master's in degree in counseling from Adams State. She currently resides in Lakewood, Colo.
