Colorado University Athletics
Lacrosse Announces Mitch Fenton as Associate Head Coach
January 24, 2024 | Lacrosse
BOULDER — Head Coach Ann Elliott Whidden announced Wednesday afternoon new staff designations for Mitch Fenton and Nicole Beardsley.
Fenton will now serve as the Associate Head Coach while Beardsley is now the Offensive Coordinator and Director of Recruiting.
"I feel very fortunate to have the great staff I do. Mitch, Nicole and Maddie all play integral roles in our program and I feel lucky to have a staff that fits so well together. I am very excited about what we can achieve this year as a staff and a program. Having consistency in our staff allows us to continue to develop our players at the highest level and reach our goals as a program." - Head Coach Ann Elliot Whidden
Mitch is entering his seventh season with Colorado Lacrosse, working primarily with CU's goalkeepers and defensive unit the last six seasons. He graduated from Colorado in 2014 with bachelor's degree in Psychology and Political Science. Fenton earned four letters for the schools Men's Club team, serving as the goalkeeper his entire time. He also holds the CU club single-season record in saves (264).
His first full-time season was 2017-18 but had been a volunteer and integral part of the program since 2014-15 once he graduated.
"Mitch has been with me since just about the beginning. He is passionate about Colorado and Colorado lacrosse," said head coach Ann Elliott Whidden. "He has consistently shown his dedication to my vision, our program and our student athletes. He is a great teacher of the game and is committed to helping our student athletes grow on and off the field. I am excited to promote him to Associate Head coach for all he has done for our program. This has been well earned and is well deserved over the last 10 years. While Mitch will continue with all of his normal duties, he will take on some head coaching responsibilities and have a bigger role in our fundraising efforts. This is a critical part of our program being able to achieve our goals into the future with the changing landscape of college athletics."
Nicole enters her second season with CU, after spending one season at the University of Massachusetts as an assistant for the team. At UMass she aided the Minutewomen to a perfect 9-0 Atlantic 10 Conference record, and their first at-large to the NCAA Tournament in program history.
Prior to Massachusetts, Beardsley spent three seasons as the Director of Operations at Northwestern and before that she had a successful four-year career on the Lacrosse team for the Wildcats. In her time as a student-athlete Northwestern advanced to two Big Ten tournament finals and reached the Elite Eight twice. Nicole was an All-Big Ten Tournament selection, a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar and a member of the team leadership group across her collegiate career.
Beardsley graduated from Northwestern in 2018 with her bachelor's degree in Human Development, Psychological Services, and received her master's in Sport and Performance Psychology from the University of Western States in 2021.
"Nicole has made a huge impact in our program over the last year and a half. She has great experience from UMass and Northwestern and has been able to instill all she has learned from her experiences there to help us continue to grow and develop here," stated head coach Ann Elliott Whidden. "Over the last year, Nicole has been an integral part in developing our new offensive systems and will officially take over full control of those responsibilities moving forward as our offensive coordinator. In addition, Nicole will take on our director of recruiting duties. She has a great eye for the type of players we are looking for, has done a great job in her first year with us in this area, and while our whole staff is very active in recruiting she will be in charge of managing all our recruiting efforts as our director of recruiting."
"I have a great staff in Maddie, Mitch and Nicole. I am excited about these changes and believe they will help us compete for and win championships as we continue to build this program and enter into the Big12." - Head Coach Ann Elliott Whidden
Colorado Lacrosse opens up regular season play on Sunday, February 11th at home against Louisville.
