Suffolk's Leyden Collects Milestone Coacing Victory

BOSTON, Mass. - Suffolk University Women's Basketball Head Coach Ed Leyden won his 300th career collegiate game on Monday with a 79-52 victory over the Norwich University Cadets in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action.

The win moves Suffolk to a 12-4 mark on the year while they improve to 4-0 on the season in GNAC play. In his 19th season behind the Suffolk bench, Leyden has now won 289 career games with the Rams. He coached one previous season at Tufts University during the 1993-94 season leading the Jumbos to an 11-12 record. Since taking over the Rams in 1994, Leyden maintains a winning percentage of .590. He has turned the Rams into one of the tops teams among Women's Basketball programs in the GNAC, as well as New England guiding the Rams to six consecutive Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division-III tournaments.

Leyden is a five-time winner of the GNAC's Coach of the Year award. He has also coached 20 players in his time at Suffolk who have received All-Conference recognition by the GNAC. Of the 11 players in Women's Basketball program history to record at least 1,000 career points, eight have come under Leyden's tenure, including Suffolk's all-time leading scorer Katie Norton '00 (1,502 points) who was a member of the GNAC's inaugural Hall of Fame Class in 2010 and Suffolk University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2009.

Leyden was also a recipient of the Suffolk University Leadership Award in 2007, and was named Coach of the Year by the Suffolk University Student Government Association in 2012. This past October he received Suffolk's "Pink Tie Award" handed out to a Suffolk University male during October's Breast Cancer Awareness month to someone who has demonstrated leadership in their support for the cause.

Prior to his collegiate career, Leyden coached high school for 11 years. At Revere High School, his teams were 84-36, a .700 winning percentage. His teams won the Greater Boston League Title his last three seasons, going 44-1 in that stretch. Leyden was selected Coach of the Year twice by the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Association. He was also named Boston Globe Coach of the Year. Ten of his former high school players were named captains of their college teams.

Leyden currently resides in North Reading with his wife Norma and their three children, Michael, Michelle and Daniel, a 2009 graduate from Suffolk University.

Leyden is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts. He received a Master's Degree and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies at Boston State College. He is a former Mathematics teacher at Revere High School.

*Release provided courtesy of Suffolk University Sports Information Dept.