Amanda Louise Freed (born December 26, 1979) is an American, former professional

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

utility player In sports, a utility player is one who can play several positions competently. Sports in which the term is often used include association football, basketball, American football, baseball, rugby union, rugby league, softball, ice hockey, and water ...

and

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

. She played

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

for

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, winning the national title for the Bruins in the 1999 Women's College World Series. In two other national runner-up finishes, she was also named All-Tournament in all her appearances at the world series. She later won a gold medal with Team USA at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

. In 2005, Freed joined the

National Pro Fastpitch National Pro Fastpitch (NPF), formerly the Women's Pro Softball League (WPSL), was a professional women's softball league in the United States. The teams battled for the Cowles Cup. The WPSL was founded in 1997 and folded in 2001; the NPF revive ...

and played until 2008 for the defunct Rockford Thunder. She also served as a coach for

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

Early life and college career

Born in

Fountain Valley, California Fountain Valley is a suburban city in Orange County, California. The population was 57,047 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Indigenous The Indigenous people of the Fountain Valley area are the Tongva. The closest ...

and raised in nearby

Cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs from the ''Cupressus'' genus of the '' Cupressaceae'' family, typically found in temperate climates and subtropical regions of Asia, Europe, and North America. The word ''cypress'' ...

, Freed went to Pacifica High School in Garden Grove. As a pitcher in high school, Amanda won numerous awards, including the Gatorade National Female Athlete of the Year and Gatorade Softball Player of the Year. As a senior in high school, Freed was rank the top pitcher in the world and even threw five perfect games. As the top softball recruit in 1998, Freed decided to attend

where she played for the

UCLA Bruins softball The UCLA Bruins softball team represents the University of California, Los Angeles in NCAA Division I softball. The Bruins are among the most decorated programs in NCAA softball, leading all schools in NCAA championships with 12, 13 overall Women' ...

team from 1999 to 2002. To this day (2018) Freed stats at UCLA are impressive. Freed holds records in the top 10 for eight categories of pitching and eight categories of hitting.

International playing career

Freed played for a number of years as part of the for the

United States women's national softball team The United States women's national softball team is the national softball team of the United States. It is governed by USA Softball (formerly known as the Amateur S ...

, winning gold at the Canadian Cup and World Cup in 2002, the team won gold at

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games, officially the XIV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Santo Domingo 2003, were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the Games was made in the mid-1990 ...

, and 2006 World Cup of Softball. Amanda was also an alternate at the 2000 Olympics, where the team won gold. Making the team in 2004, Freed made four appearances contributing a

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

and scoring three runs.

Professional playing career

From 2005 to 2008, Freed played for

, first with the Texas (later Rockford) Thunder from 2005 to 2007 then with the

Chicago Bandits The Chicago Bandits were a women's professional softball team based in Rosemont, Illinois. Since the 2005 season, they have played as a member of National Pro Fastpitch (NPF). The Bandits won the 2008 NPF championship, defeating the Washington ...

Cowles Cup championship team in 2008.

Post-playing career

In 2008, Freed was an assistant coach at

under Eileen Schmidt. In 2009, Freed was a personal trainer for

Reese Witherspoon Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an American actress and producer. She is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Reese Witherspoon, various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Aw ...

during filming for the movie '' How Do You Know'', in which Witherspoon played a softball player. Freed later became a softball color commentator for FSW,

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and

Pac-12 Network The Pac-12 Network (P12N), sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks, was an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities were headquartere ...

College Statistics

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Freed, Amanda Louise 1979 births Living people American softball players Olympic gold medalists for the United States in softball Olympic softball players for the United States Softball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Softball players from California UCLA Bruins softball players Sportspeople from Fountain Valley, California Sportspeople from Cypress, California Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics