FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

March 6, 2017

 

MEDIA CONTACT

Codi Warren

Managing Director of Communications

E: cwarren@usasoftball.com

P: (405) 425-3431

 

USA Softball announces 2017 Women’s and Junior Women’s National Teams coaching staff

 

OKLAHOMA CITY – USA Softball announced today the complete coaching staff for the USA Softball Women’s (WNT) and Junior Women’s National Team (JWNT) Programs. Selected from the USA Softball WNT Coaching Pool, the coaches selected will lead their respective programs as they compete around the country this summer.

 

Joining USA Softball WNT Head Coach Ken Eriksen (Tampa, Fla./Head Coach at South Florida) on the coaching staff are Howard Dobson (Baton Rouge, La./Assistant Coach at LSU), Tairia Flowers (Tucson, Ariz./Head Coach at CSUN), John Rittman (Valencia, Calif./Associate Head Coach at Kansas), and Heather Tarr (Redmond, Wash./Head Coach at Washington).  Both Dobson and Rittman were a part of the USA Softball WNT coaching staff who helped lead the U.S. to a Gold Medal finish at last year’s WBSC Women’s World Championship.  Flowers returns to the USA Softball WNT coaching staff with prior experience coaching the JWNT and most recently leading the USA Softball Women’s Elite Team, who competed alongside the WNT in the World Cup of Softball XI last summer. Tarr will head into her first season as a coach for the National Team Program.

 

Click here to see the athletes selected to the 2017 USA Softball Women's National Team

Eriksen and his staff will lead the USA Softball WNT at the World Cup of Softball XII and at a Pan American Games/World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) World Championship Qualifier.  The complete schedule for the Red, White and Blue, including exhibition games, will be released at a later date.

 

Joining USA Softball JWNT Head Coach Laura Berg (Corvallis, Ore./Head Coach at Oregon State) on the coaching staff are Trisha Ford (Fremont, Calif./Head Coach at Arizona State), Kristie Fox (San Diego, Calif./Head Coach at UT-Arlington), Natasha Watley (Irvine, Calif./Director of Operations at CSUN), and Lori Harrigan-Mack (Las Vegas, Nev./Pitching coach at College of Southern Nevada).  This marks the second-consecutive season for Ford and Fox on the USA Softball JWNT coaching staff, while Watley and Harrigan-Mack will have their first stint as coaches with the National Team Program.    

 

Click here to see the athletes selected to the 2017 USA Softball Junior Women's National Team

The USA Softball JWNT coaching staff will look to lead the Red, White and Blue at the World Cup of Softball XII and the WBSC Junior Women's World Championship, which will be held July 24-30 in Clearwater, Fla.  The complete schedule for the USA Softball JWNT, including exhibition games, will be released at a later date.

 

For more information on the USA Softball National Team Programs, visit USASoftball.com. 

 

About USA Softball
USA Softball is a 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization headquartered in Oklahoma City, Okla., and is designated as the National Governing Body (NGB) of Softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. One of the nation’s largest sports organizations, USA Softball sanctions competition in every state through a network of 70 local associations and has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 150,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than 2 million.  USA Softball is dedicated to providing people of all ages the opportunity to play the game they love at a variety of levels by offering recreational, league, tournament and competitive play for fast pitch, slow pitch and modified pitch.  USA Softball annually conducts thousands of tournaments throughout the country including over 100 National Championships.  The USA Softball umpire program is among the nation’s largest and are widely known as the best trained umpires in the game.

As the NGB for the sport of softball, USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting the six USA Softball National Teams that compete in events such as the Olympics, Pan American Games, World Championships and other international and domestic events. For more information on USA Softball, including its founding and history as the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA), please visit, www.USASoftball.com.

 

About the World Baseball Softball Confederation 

Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland -- the Olympic Capital -- the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) is the world governing body for baseball and softball. WBSC has 213 National Federation and Associate Members in 142 countries and territories across Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe and Oceania, which represent a united baseball/softball sports movement that encompasses over 65 million athletes and attracts approximately 150 million fans to stadiums worldwide annually. 

 

The WBSC governs all international competitions involving official National Teams. The WBSC oversees the Softball World Championships (Men, Women, U-19 Men, and U-19 Women), Premier12, World Baseball Classic, and Baseball World Cups (U-12, U-15, U-18, U-23 and Women's).

 

For more information, visit: www.wbsc.org

 

Katie Willis I Communications Coordinator

USA Softball

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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73111
405-425-3425 (O)

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