OKLAHOMA CITY – USA Softball, the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States, announced today 22 coaches who have been selected to the 2017-2019 USA Softball Women’s National Team Coaching Pool. Head coaches and assistant coaches for the Women’s National Team (WNT) and Junior Women’s National Team (JWNT) will be selected from this list for all 2017, 2018 and 2019 competitions.   

“We are honored to have another outstanding group of coaches making up the USA Softball Women's National Team Coaching Pool,” said USA Softball National Teams Director Chris Sebren.  “Their experiences as both players and coaches at the elite level will bring a wealth of knowledge to our National Team Program.  We’re excited to see the contributions these individuals will provide to our Women's and Junior Women's National Team athletes as we look to continue the legacy of USA Softball and build towards qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.”

Women's National Team Coaching Pool

Tony Abbatine (Monroe, N.Y.) - Founder, Frozen Ropes 
John Bargfeldt (Tulsa, Okla.) - Head Coach at Tulsa
Laura Berg (Corvallis, Ore.) - Head Coach at Oregon State
Suzy Brazney (Huntington Beach, Calif.) - Former Head Coach at Golden West College
Howard Dobson (Baton Rouge, La.) - Assistant Coach at LSU
Ken Eriksen (Tampa, Fla.) - Head Coach at South Florida
Lisa Fernandez (Long Beach, Calif.) - Assistant Coach at UCLA
Tairia Flowers (Tucson, Ariz.) - Head Coach at Cal State Northridge
Trisha Ford (Fremont, Calif.) - Head Coach at Arizona State
Kristie Fox (San Diego, Calif.) - Head Coach at UT-Arlington
Lori Harrigan-Mack (Las Vegas, Nev.) - Pitching coach at College of Southern Nevada
Kyle Jamieson (Stittsville, Ontario, Canada) - Head Coach at Furman
Peter Meredith (Salt Lake City, Utah) - Assistant Coach at BYU
Patrick Murphy (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) - Head Coach at Alabama
Lisa Navas (Columbia, S.C.) - Associate Head Coach at South Carolina
Cat Osterman (Houston, Texas) - Assistant Coach at Texas State
John Rittman (Valencia, Calif.) - Associate Head Coach at Kansas
Jennifer Rocha (Gainesville, Fla.) - Assistant Coach at Florida
Heather Tarr (Redmond, Wash.) - Head Coach at Washington
Gina Vecchione (New Rochelle, N.Y.) - Associate Head Coach at Cal Poly
Kirk Walker (Woodland Hills, Calif.) - Assistant Coach at UCLA
Natasha Watley (Irvine, Calif.) - Director of Operations at Cal State Northridge

Selected to the coaching pool by the Women’s National Team Selection Committee (WNTSC), coaches may be required to participate in international events, player evaluations, selection camps and other specified events as part of the evaluation process.  Coaches selected from this pool will have the opportunity to coach in some of the highest level softball competitions in the world over the course of the next three years. The schedule for the WNT and JWNT has yet to be finalized for the 2017-19 cycle, but those international calendars will be highlighted by the 2017 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Junior Women’s World Championship to be held in Clearwater, Fla., 2018 WBSC Women’s World Championship to be held in Chiba, Japan, the 2019 Pan American Games to be held in Lima, Peru and the 2019 WBSC Junior Women’s World Championship to be held in Irvine, Calif.

For updates on the USA Softball National Team Program and events throughout the 2017 season visit www.USASoftball.com.

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