Eriksen, Johns Named Head Coaches for USA Softball Women’s Program

 OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – The Amateur Softball Association (ASA) of America and USA Softball announced January 29th the selection of Ken Eriksen (University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla.) and Karen Johns (Whippany, N.J.) as the Head Coaches of the Women’s National Team and Junior Women’s National Team, respectively.  Eriksen has served as an assistant coach for many women’s 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.

Eriksen will serve as the head coach for the Women’s 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’s National team that captured a silver medal in the Pan American Games. He also served as the assistant coach for the Women’s 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.

“This 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,” said Eriksen. “The Pan American Games in 2011 and the World Championships in 2012 will be our main focus in helping promote the sport of softball while repeating as Champions.”

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

“We 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,” said Johns. “This junior team is truly the future of the Women’s National program and the future looks exciting.”

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

“We are thrilled to have a great cross section of coaches for the Women’s National team program for the next two years,” said ASA and USA Softball Executive Director Ron Radigonda.  “With the ISF change of World Championships every two years, we are excited to assist coaches in gaining international experience and opportunities.”