USF ATHLETICS GoUSFBulls.com
DATE: May 29, 2019
FEATURE: USF softball head coach Ken Eriksen gets to lead Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after years of dedication to the program.
By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer
TAMPA, MAY 29, 2019 – Ever since softball was eliminated from the Olympic menu after the 2008 Games, Ken Eriksen had been valiantly fighting for the sport he loves.
Now the winningest coach in USF Athletics history gets to lead the Red, White and Blue into battle for a gold medal on the world’s biggest stage.
With much fanfare last week, USA Softball proudly announced Eriksen as the head coach of the Tokyo 2020 U.S. Olympic Softball Team. Standing at the podium behind a Team USA cap, Eriksen was filled with emotion and focus as he talked about the humbling honor.
“I’m very, very proud of our program, very proud of our players and I’m looking forward to a lot of work over the next two [summers],” said Eriksen at a press conference held inside the Lee Roy Selmon Athletics Center.
Strong work ethic is a big reason why Eriksen has reached the pinnacle of coaching in the sport he began playing on a national level in 1987 with the Clearwater Bombers. After his playing career ended, the former USF baseball team member earned his first head coaching gig with the USA Softball National Team program in 1997 and led the USA Softball Junior Men’s National Team into the WBSC Junior Men’s World Olympics that year.
Eriksen continued to work his way up the Team USA ladder, serving as an assistant coach on the Women’s National Team in 2002 and helping the program win a gold medal in the WBSC World Championship. Eriksen’s success in the assistant role grew in 2003 with a gold medal victory at the 2003 Pan American Games. One year later, Eriksen got his first taste of Olympic competition and it was sweet as the 2004 U.S. Olympic Softball Team won gold in Athens, Greece.
“We didn’t really have the understanding of the magnitude of it until you were actually on the airplane five days later going, ‘Holy smokes, we’re the best team in the world,'” Eriksen said.
With softball off the Olympic program after 2008, Eriksen kept stomping for the sport in media interviews. He also kept his eyes steadily on Team USA’s continuous progression, excelling as an assistant on the gold medal squad at the 2010 WBSC Championship in Caracas Venezuela.
Eriksen was appointed head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2011 and the work on the world stage continued. In addition to leading USF softball to the Women’s College World Series and five other NCAA postseason appearances since 2012, Eriksen has a compiled a 52-4 record as head coach of Team USA in major international competitions.
Unfortunately, no Olympic glory was there to chase during those years but the team’s competitive fire still burned brightly for the team. Under Eriksen, Team USA has piled up the hardware with two WBSC World Championship gold medals (2016, 2018) and two silver medals (2012, 2014), a Pan American Games gold medal (2011) and silver medal (2015).
“All the players that kept the program alive in that time will never be forgotten,” Eriksen said.
For Eriksen, those years were all about pride and putting Team USA in the best position possible in the present and future.
“All the great players in the United States of American that play softball, there’s one national team with 15 spots,” he said.
Now it’s all about finding the right players to fill those 15 spots with a whole lot on the horizon for Team USA leading up to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
“It’s about the game. It’s about today and what the task is today. For me right now, my task is the first day of practice June 10 in Chicago for Team USA for this year. I’m not going to worry about the Olympics,” Eriksen said. “We’ve got a Japan Cup this year. We’ve got the Pan Am Games this year. We have an International Cup this year. That’s part of the evaluation process of who is going to be in the final 15.”
There’s also the task of leading the USF softball team, which captured its second straight American Athletic Conference regular season title and made the program’s 15th NCAA Regional appearance in 2019.
The 2020 Olympics are set to get underway in late July, but for now the balancing act between his two programs begins.
”It’s going to be real important for myself and Michael Kelly, the athletic director at USF, to sit down and map out a game plan for my two assistants in Jess Moore and Laura Ricciardone, and then our support cast, to see how we’re going to handle this going forward,” Eriksen said. “I think we’ve got some pretty good plans. Michael is very, very astute to what’s going to happen with myself in the capacity of what NCAA Compliance is going to allow.”
A super supporter of Eriksen and the rapidly growing sport of softball, especially in the booming Bay area, Kelly is happy to help make everything work.
“I just know it’s a tremendous opportunity for USF, for Ken and for the Tampa Bay community,” Kelly said. “I just couldn’t be more proud and excited for him.”
Eriksen Was Prepared for Whatever Might Happen
Eriksen vividly remembers where he was in 2016 when the International Olympic Committee announced that softball and baseball will return to the Olympics beginning in 2020.
“I’m getting goosebumps right now and probably a little emotional because we were dead in the water as a sport. I remember sitting in front of the computer at my house when they had the vote,” he said. “My daughter kind of videotaped it and she could hear me yelling and screaming that we got back in. I’m sure all the players in the world, not just the United States but Japan, China, Canada, they all were going crazy, too.”
Like his USF lineup cards, the wins, and paperwork, have piled up for Eriksen since the Olympic announcement while he kept an even-keeled about the possibility of coaching Team USA in the 2020 Olympics.
“You’re basically putting a lot of your life on hold for a dream of 15 young women that will get to go and participate in the Olympics,” said Eriksen, who has been given yearly contracts by Team USA.
Team USA qualified for the 2020 Games while advancing to the WBSC World Championship title game in Chiba, Japan in August 2018. The Red, White and Blue topped Japan in the gold medal game but Eriksen still wasn’t counting his chickens when it came to coaching Team USA in 2020.
“If I told you that right after the World Championships, even though I may not have been given the job yet, I think it was really responsible for me to continue in the job that I was at,” Eriksen said. “It was deciphering all the information still, putting together the plan for the next two years, no matter who took over.”
Flip the calendar to November 2018 and Team USA finished the international season with a 20-0 record after defeating Japan once again in the Japan Cup. Even with those monumental feats, Eriksen was still preparing Team USA for the future – with or without him at the helm.
That was until the big news broke last week.
“Everything is in boxes and stacks, and videos, and everything else to hand off, except I don’t have to hand it off now, which is great,” he said. “The work now just got heavy.”
About USF Softball
Be sure to follow USF softball on social media (Twitter / Facebook / Instagram) and visit GoUSFBulls.com for the most up-to-date information. The USF softball program has been one of the most successful on campus, making 15 NCAA tournament appearances, including a trip to the Women’s College World Series in 2012.
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Erin Beck // USF Athletics
Assistant Director of Communications
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