READING, Pa. - Co-Director of Athletics Janice Luck and Rick Ferry have announced that Amber Nichols has been named the new Head Softball Coach at Albright College.

Nichols comes to Albright after a two year stint at Frostburg State University where she served as Assistant Coach. During her time at Frostburg Coach Nichols was responsible for the daily practice schedules, conditioning, fundraising, game day preparation, and the recruitment of prospective student-athletes.

Prior to her collegiate coaching career, Coach Nichols was a standout player at Thiel College. A three year member of the Softball program, Nichols garnered many team, conference, and national awards.

In her senior season (2007) she was named to the President's Athletic Conference First Team and was named the conference's Hitter of the Week. To cap off her final season Coach Nichols was also named to the CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-District Second Team and the National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III All-Region Second Team.

During her time at Thiel, Coach Nichols served as a student intern in the Sports Information Office, and was an Office Assistant in the Athletic Department. She graduated in May of 2007 with a Bachelors of Arts in English, Magna Cum Laude.

Most recently she earned her Masters of Education in Interdisciplinary Studies from Frostburg State, where she maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA.

Throughout her career as both a player and a coach, Nichols has worked at a variety of camps and clinics. Along with her coaching responsibilities at Albright, Coach Nichols will also work in the Admissions Department.

Coach Nichols replaces former Head Coach Kate Refsnyder who took the Assistant Coaching position at Division I Coastal Carolina University in June.