Hall of Fame Class of 2017: Ashley Waters

Ashley Waters: Setting, and Surpassing, Her Goals

Orono, Maine -- If you play second base and want to impress New Englanders you have to get your uniform dirty. Ashley Waters impressed everyone who ever saw her play, or played with her.

Named the head softball coach at Boston University before she reached the age of 30, Waters was setting goals and reaching new plateaus even before she arrived at the University of Maine ready to contribute in a big way.

Waters stepped right in at second base, next to senior shortstop Brittany Cheney, who was immediately impressed.

"She was very scrappy, a very hard worker, confident, and made an impact right away," says Cheney. "I wish we came in the same year. I would have liked to play four years with her."

Waters, likewise, was impressed with Cheney.

"As a freshman, I saw her win the Dean Smith Award," says Waters, "and I made that a goal," a goal, like many others, that she realized.

Waters' first major prize was the Boston Globe/Will McDonough Athlete of the Year award when she was a senior at Amesbury (Mass.) High School, where her number was retired in field hockey and basketball (she was a 1,000-point scorer) as well as softball.

As a freshman at UMaine she was named to the America East All-Rookie team and she just kept piling up the awards for the following three years. Among them, she was twice named to the America East first team, was America East Player of the Year in 2008 and was on the Northeast All-Region team as a senior in '09.

Good as she was at the plate and second base, she was equally outstanding in the classroom, a four-time Academic All-American, the America East 2008 Scholar-Athlete of the Year and, as aforementioned, the '09 M Club Dean Smith Award recipient.

On her recruiting visit to Orono, Waters stayed with Lauren Dulkis, then a senior infielder and captain on the softball team, and a coaching assistant during Waters' freshman season. She was also, and still is, a very familiar face.

"We go way back," says Dulkis, who coached her sister and Waters on a travel team when they were in middle school. Now, Dulkis serves as a volunteer assistant to Waters at BU.

"She's intense, a natural born leader, very charismatic," says Dulkis. "Some people just got. She's got it. The players at BU love her."

Lynn Coutts, now a senior associate director of athletics at Maine, says that Waters "embodies everything I look for in a person to represent Maine softball," citing her "attitude, work ethic, energy, competitiveness."

A former player and coach in the Black Bears' softball program, Coutts notes that "people followed her. She expected excellence, held people accountable."

Coutts says Waters was a "very solid infielder, with good hands. Scrappy. She was a very good hitter. Strong."

As a hitter, over four seasons, during 2006-09, Waters played in 206 games, batted .323, had 41 doubles, 11 triples and 18 home runs, drove in 100 runs, scored 134 runs, batted .323 and had a .498 slugging percentage.

Waters' performance at UMaine was enough to attract the attention of the Stratford Brakettes, the legendary women's fast-pitch softball team and 30 times a national champion. She tried out with the Brakettes following her junior season and played with them for six seasons.

The Brakettes' 70-year history includes such softball legends as Joan Joyce and Dot Richardson and through 2016 Waters ranked high on several of the team's season and career statistical lists. She's third in doubles and runs scored in a season, fifth in home runs and runs scored in a career, and sixth in career doubles.

While with the Brakettes, Waters got started in coaching with travel teams in Connecticut, then was an assistant for three years at Harvard before taking over at BU, where she is starting her third year.

"I've seen a little girl grow up," says Dulkis, "and she has never changed."

Four years of that growing up occurred in Orono, years Waters remembers fondly: "We were tough, hard-nosed kids. We loved to get our uniforms dirty."

-UMaine-

The 30th annual UMaine Sports Hall of Fame Banquet will take place at the Black Bear Inn on Friday, Sept. 8. To reserve your spot at the banquet, please click HERE.

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