Assistant Coaches Announced for USA Women and Jr. Women

Assistant coaches announced
3/3/2011

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America and USA Softball announced today the full coaching staffs for the USA Softball Women’s National Team and USA Softball Junior Women’s National Team for competitions in 2011. With Ken Eriksen (Tampa, Fla./Head Coach at USF) and Karen Johns (Whippany, N.J.) at the head of the Women’s and Junior Women’s programs respectively, the assistants for the year include nine different coaches with three making first-time coaching appearances with the USA Softball Women’s National Team program and one with the Junior Women’s National Team program.

Joining Head Coach Johns on the Junior Women’s National Team staff are Suzy Brazney (Huntington Beach, Calif./Head Coach at Golden West College), Stacy Iveson (Prescott Valley, Ariz./Head Coach at Yavapai College), Tony Rico (Huntington Beach, Calif./Coach for the Worth Firecrackers) and Joe Salvatore (Monroe Township, N.J./Coach for New Jersey Breakers). Rico, coach of the Worth Firecrackers, is making his first coaching appearance with the program while the three other assistants were instrumental in the team’s Gold Medal showing at the III Pan American Championship in Bogota, Colombia, in August.

In preparation for the International Softball Federation (ISF) Junior Women’s World Championships, Dec. 6-17, 2011 in Cape Town, Africa, the 2010-11 Junior Women’s National Team will compete against the 2011 Women’s National Team at three exhibition sites.

For information on tickets to the exhibitions in Tampa, Fla., Salem, Va., and Bowie, Md., please go to www.usasoftball.com. Tickets for the Salem and Bowie exhibitions are currently on sale.

The USA Softball Women’s National Team will have four different sets of assistant coaches to assist Eriksen in a winning season. The staff features new faces including Olympic Gold Medalists Tairia Flowers (Tucson, Ariz./Head Coach at Cal State Northridge) and Stacey Nuveman (La Verne, Calif./Assistant Coach at San Diego State), who retired their cleats following the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China. Mike White (Eugene, Ore./Head Coach at the University of Oregon) is also making his first appearance with the team following a successful career as a USA Softball athlete in the Men’s Fast Pitch National Team Program.

The following are the assignments for this summer with the selection of the staff for the Pan American Games, October 17-23 in Guadalajara, Mexico, to be made after the Women’s National Team Selection Camp, June 13-17 in Chula Vista, Calif.

Exhibitions
June 25, 2011 in Tampa, Fla.
Mike Larabee (Fayetteville, Ark./Head Coach at Arkansas), Nuveman and White
June 29, 2011 in Salem, Va.
Flowers, Larabee, White
July 1, 2011 in Bowie, Md.
Flowers, Larabee, White

Canadian Open Fast Pitch Women’s International Championship
July 9-17, 2011
Larabee, Nuveman and White

World Cup of Softball VI
July 21-25, 2011
Flowers, Nuveman and White

Japan Cup
July 28-31, 2011
Kate Drohan (Chicago, Ill./Head Coach at Northwestern) and White
{Additional coach may be announced at a later date)

Pan American Games
Oct. 17-23, 2011
Coaches to be announced after Selection Camp

Drohan, Gordon Eakin (Provo, Utah/Head Coach at BYU), Flowers, Iveson, Larabee, Nuveman, Karen Weekly (Knoxville, Tenn./Co-Head Coach at Tennessee) and White will all serve as coaches at the Selection Camp.