Brooke Darreff, a former Atlantic 10 Player of the Year who served on the coaching staff at her alma mater Saint Joseph's University for five seasons, begins her fourth season as head coach at La Salle in 2020-21.
The eighth coach in the history of La Salle's program, Darreff was promoted to Associate Head Coach and was tabbed Interim Head Coach at St. Joe's for the final five weeks of 2017, leading the team to the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Championship.
Darreff was tasked with developing and executing practice plans throughout the 2017 season, and has also been a point person for recruiting, travel, budgets, scheduling, alumni outreach and fundraising during her tenure.
On the field, she has coached the hitters, infielders, outfielders and catchers while at SJU, and helped guide the Hawks to five straight Atlantic 10 Championship appearances, including a pair of runs to the title game in 2013 and 2016.
In 2013, Saint Joseph's finished the season with a 37-10-1 record and a school-record winning percentage of .781. The Hawks went 7-1 against Big 5 opponents that year, eventually dropping a heartbreaking 6-5 decision to Fordham in the A-10 title game.
Three years later, the Hawks had two opportunities to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament but fell to the Rams in a pair of closely-contested games.
Before returning to St. Joe's, Darreff began her coaching career as a graduate assistant at Temple in 2012. She was directly responsible for coaching the catchers and infielders, and instructed All-American catcher Stephanie Pasquale. Pasquale hit .313 and threw out 32.6 percent of baserunners attempting to steal en route to First Team All-10 honors.
As a player, Darreff enjoyed a decorated career with the Hawks, earning all-conference honors on three occasions. As a sophomore, she garnered A-10 Player of the Year accolades, hitting a league-best and program record .461 and compiling an outstanding .536 on-base percentage.
She is one of just seven players in program history to amass 100 hits and 100 RBIs, and her 114 career runs batted in rank fifth all-time.
In the classroom, the Hartsville, Pa., native who starred at Central Bucks South High, was a member of the Saint Joseph's Athletic Director's Honor Roll and was the recipient of the Class of 1950 Award, which is presented to the university's top senior female athlete.
She was chair of SJU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and won the 2010 Atlantic 10 Sporting Award, presented to a male and female student-athlete who exemplifies good sportsmanship.
Darreff graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology in 2010 and completed a master's degree in Organizational Development and Leadership in 2017.
