Robyn Leighton enters her first season at Utah State as an assistant coach in 2027.
Leighton joins the Utah State staff after most recently serving as the associate head coach at Incarnate Word. In four seasons with the Cardinals she saw the team go a combined 112-89-1, including a 96-59 record the past three seasons, a stretch which included the third- and fourth-winningest seasons in program history.
Leighton helped coach 10 Cardinal players to all-Southland Conference accolades during her time there, including three-time SLC Player of the Year Victoria Altamirano. UIW won 29-plus games each of her final three seasons, including a 34-17 campaign in 2024 which marked the third-most wins in program history as the team made a run to the Southland Conference Tournament title game. The Cardinals went 33-21 in 2026, including a 17-3 record at home.
Prior to her time at UIW, Leighton spent three years at Eastern Kentucky. There, she started as a volunteer assistant and director of player development for the 2020 season before being promoted to full-time assistant in 2021. The Colonels went 35-17 overall with a 22-9 conference mark in 2021 before eventually capturing the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament title and qualifying for the NCAA Tournament. In 2020, the squad got off to a 22-2 start and was ranked in the top-50 of RPI before having the season cut short due to COVID-19.
Leighton got her coaching start as a graduate assistant at Southern Arkansas in 2019, where she helped assist the program to a 2019 Great American Conference regular season championship and a NCAA Division II Central Region tournament appearance with a 46-13 overall record.
Leighton was a four-year starter at Morehead State as a catcher. During her collegiate career, she appeared in 175 games and compiled 142 hits, 26 home runs and 83 RBIs. She was an All-OVC Second Team honoree as a sophomore in 2016 and posted a career .305 batting average and .517 slugging percentage.
Leighton graduated from Morehead State University in 2018 with a degree in sport management, before earning her master’s degree in sports administration from Eastern Kentucky University in 2020.
