Aug. 22, 2012

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Andrea Becker, who served as an assistant men's volleyball coach at UC Irvine in 2012 when the Anteaters marched to their third NCAA championship, has been hired in the same capacity at UCLA, Head Coach John Speraw announced Wednesday.

Becker, 33, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Cal State Fullerton. In assuming her new duties at UCLA, she will take a one-year sabbatical from CSUF.

In 2012, Becker helped UC Irvine capture the NCAA championship. UCI finished with a 26-5 record, won the MPSF Tournament crown and defeated top-ranked USC in three sets to capture its third national championship in six years.

"Dr. Becker will have a significant effect on the UCLA men's volleyball team this season," said Speraw. "She earned the respect of the players at UCI, and she will help UCLA rise to the top again. She is eminently qualified, extensively published and passionate about her profession. We are privileged to have her."

Becker received her PhD in Sport Studies from the University of Tennessee in 2007 where she also worked in the Volunteer athletic department providing sport psychology services to athletes, coaches and teams. In final year at Tennessee, she was honored with the Edward A. Capen Research Award and the Extraordinary Professional Promise Award.

She received her BS and MS degrees in Kinesiology and Sport Performance from Sacramento State, where she was honored with the A.W. Hobt Teaching Award for the 2004-05 academic year.

Becker is an active member of the Association of Applied Sport Psychology and the National Assn. for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity. She has published her research in The Sport Psychologist, where she also serves on the editorial board. She is also co-author of Focused For Fastpitch, a softball-specific mental training book. She has written extensively about successful coaches, and coaching techniques and behaviors. In addition, she has several papers in progress, including a study of the role of optimism in coaching effectiveness.

On the public speaking circuit, Dr. Becker has given numerous lectures and scholarly presentations both locally and nationally on successful coaching methods, sport research and training, and the practice of sport and exercise psychology.

The new UCLA assistant coach was a four-year softball player at Sacramento State, where she played 118 games and started 102 primarily as a middle infielder. She was a four-year National Fastpitch Coaches Association Scholar All-American as well as a two-year CoSIDA Academic All-American. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Sacramento State in 2001.