{"id":7605,"date":"2011-01-29T10:47:10","date_gmt":"2011-01-29T18:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=7605"},"modified":"2011-02-02T18:21:07","modified_gmt":"2011-02-03T02:21:07","slug":"usf-coach-ken-eriksen-named-head-coach-of-womens-u-s-national-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=7605","title":{"rendered":"USF coach Ken Eriksen named head coach of Women’s U.S. National Team"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Click logo for original news story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Former Tampa Bay Smoker to Head Women’s Team<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Joe Smith, Times Staff Writer <\/em><\/p>\n

TAMPA \u2014 Turns out, USF softball coach Ken Eriksen will have a lot more to celebrate this weekend than his 50th birthday.<\/p>\n

Eriksen has been named coach of the U.S. women’s national team. The longtime Bulls coach, who turns 50 Monday, will lead the national team in 2011 and 2012, including the 2011 Pan American Games and the 2012 World Championships.<\/p>\n

Eriksen was an assistant on the U.S. women’s team that won gold at the 2004 Olympics, but he won’t have the chance to repeat the feat since softball was dropped from the 2012 London Games. But he will become the first man to represent USA Softball as both a player and a head coach.<\/p>\n

Editor’s note<\/strong>: An alert reader notes that Ken is actually not the first. Pete Turner, head coach for the USA Men’s team also played for Team USA (see comment below)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“As an athlete, it’s a huge, huge honor,” said Eriksen, who played at the elite fastpitch level after graduating from USF, retiring in 1997 after winning an ASA men’s national title with the Tampa Smokers. “As a coach, it’s a huge responsibility, to make sure the athletes have a great opportunity to win championships.”<\/p>\n

Eriksen was touched Friday when a meeting called by athletic director Doug Woolard turned into a surprise celebration (complete with cake), with coaches and school president Judy Genshaft congratulating him.<\/p>\n

But Eriksen, an assistant on the U.S. team from 2001-04 who rejoined in 2009, faces a tough time. The U.S. women won three gold medals and a silver from 1996-2008, but eight players have left the program to participate in the new, four-team National Pro Fastpitch league.<\/p>\n

“It’s a task I have ahead of me right now,” said Eriksen, a former USF baseball player who became its softball coach in 1997. “It’s not like you’ve been handed the keys to the New York Yankees that just came off two, three world championships. You came with a whole brand new team that has the reputation of the New York Yankees, so it’s a challenge.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe official press released from USA Softball<\/a><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\n

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. \u2013 The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America and USA Softball announced today the selection of Ken Eriksen (Tampa, Fla.) and Karen Johns (Whippany, N.J.) as the Head Coaches of the Women\u2019s National Team and Junior Women\u2019s National Team, respectively. Eriksen has served as an assistant coach for many women\u2019s teams including the 2004 Olympic Gold medal winning team in Athens while Johns was an assistant for the 2008 Olympic Silver medal winning team in Beijing.<\/p>\n

Eriksen will serve as the head coach for the Women\u2019s National team in 2011 and 2012 which will include the 2011 Pan American Games and the 2012 ISF World Championships. Eriksen will become the first male in the history of the program to represent USA Softball as both a player and coach. He was a catcher on the 1991 USA Men\u2019s National team that captured a silver medal in the Pan American Games. He also served as the assistant coach for the Women\u2019s National Team from 2001-2004 and also in 2009 and 2010. He is currently the head coach at the University of South Florida, a position he has held since 1997. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an incredible opportunity for me as a coach and for USA Softball to bring new faces into the USA Softball National team family. Our goal is to prepare and shape this unit into a championship caliber team that will compete in the next two ISF medal events as well as the World Cup of Softball here in the United States in front of our fans,\u201d said Eriksen. \u201cThe Pan American Games in 2011 and the World Championships in 2012 will be our main focus.\u201d <\/p>\n

Johns led the 2010 USA Softball Junior Women\u2019s National Team to the Pan American Championship and will lead the same team in 2011 to the ISF Junior Women\u2019s World Championships in Cape Town, South Africa in December. Johns has served as an assistant coach for the Women\u2019s National Team program from 2005-2008 where she helped the team win a World Championship and a Silver Medal at the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really excited to build on the success of the 2010 season. We had a great showing at the Pan American Championship and would like to continue our reign as Junior World Champions this December in South Africa,\u201d said Johns. \u201cThis junior team is truly the future of the Women\u2019s National program and the future looks exciting.\u201d <\/p>\n

ASA and USA Softball is also announcing the 2011-2012 Women\u2019s National Team Coaching pool of 24 coaches. The assistant coaches for the Women\u2019s and Junior Women\u2019s National team events this summer will be selected from this pool at a later date. The Women\u2019s National Team Selection Committee will continue to open the coaches\u2019 pool every two years due to the ISF World Championship biennial cycle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are thrilled to have a great cross section of coaches for the Women\u2019s National team program for the next two years,\u201d said ASA and USA Softball Executive Director Ron Radigonda. \u201cWith the ISF change of World Championships every two years, we are excited to assist coaches in gaining international experience and opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

2011-2012 USA Softball Women\u2019s National Coaching Pool<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vaughan Alvey \u2013 BYU
\nSuzy Brazney \u2013 Golden West College
\nMikel Candrea
\nChuck D\u2019Arcy \u2013 Arizona State
\nHoward Dobson \u2013 Southern Miss
\nKate Drohan \u2013 Northwestern
\nGordon Eakin- BYU
\nTairia Flowers \u2013 Cal State Northridge
\nMichelle Gromacki \u2013 Cal State Fullerton
\nStacey Iveson \u2013 Yavapai College
\nBarb Jordan
\nLyndsey Klein
\nMike Larabee \u2013 Arkansas
\nKyle Magnusson \u2013 Southern Utah
\nJay Miller \u2013 Mississippi State
\nPat Murphy \u2013 Alabama
\nStacey Nuveman \u2013 San Diego State
\nJamie Pinkerton \u2013 Iowa State
\nTony Rico \u2013 Worth Firecrackers
\nEileen Schmidt \u2013 Virginia
\nMike White \u2013 University of Oregon
\nKaren Weekly \u2013 Tennessee<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Tampa Bay Smoker to Head Women’s Team By Joe Smith, Times Staff Writer TAMPA \u2014 Turns out, USF softball coach Ken Eriksen will have a lot more to celebrate this weekend than his 50th birthday. Eriksen has been named coach of the U.S. women’s national team. The longtime Bulls coach, who turns 50 Monday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,22,26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-asa","8":"category-people","9":"category-women","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7605"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7613,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7605\/revisions\/7613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}