After spending the 2022 season as a volunteer assistant, Navas is being elevated on Eriksen’s staff
TAMPA, Aug. 2, 2022 – University of South Florida softball head coach Ken Eriksen has promoted Lisa Navas, who spent the 2022 season as a volunteer assistant, to one of his assistant coach roles as he begins his 26th season as the program’s shot-caller.
“We are fortunate to have Coach Navas elevated to our assistant coach position,” Eriksen said. “A true professional in all aspects of what it takes on the field and off the field. She is not ‘allergic’ to work, which she has displayed passionately her entire career. Her experience as a collegiate head coach and as an assistant will add to our staff immediately. I am looking forward to her straight-forwardness and her leadership on and off the field for our women.”
In 2022, Navas assisted on Eriksen’s staff as the team reached its 16th NCAA tournament in school history. Her experience was used in a variety of ways, including hitting, catching, defensive alignments and scouting.
“I am excited to be at home and settled here in Tampa,” Navas said. “It is a dream come true to be raised here and now be part a full-time of the staff. I look forward to working with Coach Eriksen and Coach Karla again.”
Navas joined the Bulls for the 2022 campaign after spending eight seasons as the associate head coach at South Carolina, where she helped the team reach seven NCAA tournaments and a Super Regionals in 2019. Navas served as the team’s infield and catcher specialist, with the Gamecocks improving their fielding percentage from the previous year five times and turned 22 or more double plays in all but two seasons. South Carolina catchers also threw out 10-or-more runners attempting to steal five times.
Prior to South Carolina, Navas served as head coach for the National Fastpitch League’s Carolina Diamonds in its inaugural season in 2012, coaching three of the league’s top four home run hitters and Katie Burkhart, who finished third in the league in strikeouts.
Navas was also the inaugural head coach at North Carolina State, starting the program in the 2004 season and finishing with a 296-226 record from 2004-2012. She led the team to the 2006 Atlantic Coast Conference regular season and tournament titles and two NCAA tournament appearances (2006, 2007).
While at the helm at N.C. State, eight of Navas’ student-athletes garnered first-team All-ACC honors with 10 taking National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Southeast Region accolades. For three-consecutive years, a member of the Wolfpack earned one of the league’s individual awards, including Navas’s ACC Coach of the Year in 2006, and she coached her second league Rookie of the Year in 2012, Renada Davis. In 2007, Navas tutored Abbie Sims to both the ACC Player of the Year and third-team NFCA All-America accolades.
Navas had her first head coaching job at NCAA Division II-member Barry University. In her time with the team, she led the program to six regionals, two Sunshine State Conference championships and a second-place finish in the 1998 NCAA tournament. In a nine-year tenure with the team, she posted a 335-134-1 (.714) record.
Overall, in her 18 years as head coach, Navas has posted a 631-360-1 record, eight NCAA tournament appearances and four conference championships.
Ultimately, Navas started her coaching career at Missouri under NFCA Hall of Fame head coach Jay Miller as the team’s hitting coach. Coaching the team for the 1991 season, she aided the team as it made its second NCAA Women’s College World Series appearance.
In addition to her collegiate coaching career, Navas currently serves as an assistant coach for the Puerto Rican National Team. She attended the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, AL where the eam finished 5th. She assisted last fall with the U-19 USA Junior Softball Team which tallied first-place finishes at both the 2021 Junior Pan Am Games and the 2021 U-18 World Championships.
Navas played collegiate softball for NAIA Oklahoma City University as a shortstop and helped the team record a second-place finish in the 1986 NAIA tournament. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 1987 and received her master’s degree in athletic administration from Barry University in 2000.
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 16 NCAA tournament appearances, including a trip to the Women’s College World Series in 2012.
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