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USA Softball
Announces National Team Coaching Pool
Eriksen, Lenti Named To Elite Field
CHICAGO IL (April 11,
2001) South Florida coach Ken Eriksen and DePaul coach Eugene Lenti have been named as two of the 12 coaches in the USA Softball National Team Coaches Pool through the 2004 Olympic Games, the Amateur Softball Association has
announced. The 12 coaches will participate in the USA Softball National Team Camp May 30-June 3 in Chula Vista, Calif. Six coaches in the pool will then be selected to direct the two U.S. National Teams chosen after the camp.
The head coach of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team will eventually be determined from among the six coaches in the pool.
Five of the coaches in the pool are from the Pac-10, while Conference USA, the Big 12, and the SEC each have two coaches in the pool and the Big West has one.
Eriksen has been involved at the major level of fast pitch softball for the past 17 years, as
both a player and a coach. He started playing fast pitch softball after graduating from USF, where he was a four-year starter on
the school's first NCAA-qualifying baseball team. Eriksen, an outfielder/pitcher, had a career batting average of over .300 and an ERA below 2.80.
Prior to being named head coach at USF in 1997, Eriksen had been the assistant for the previous 11 years. Since 1997, he has led the Bulls to two NCAA appearances and a total of 192 wins in four years. USF has constantly been
ranked in the top 25, reaching a number six ranking in 1999.
Now in his 20th season at DePaul, Lenti’s teams have won 659 games and made seven NCAA Tournament appearances, including two Women’s College World Series bids. The Blue Demons are currently 31-7-1 and own a 17-game winning
streak with 13 shutouts. This is the fastest that any Lenti-coached DePaul team has reached the 30-win plateau. The 1999 National Coach of the Year, Lenti became the 23rd coach in NCAA history to record 600 career wins, and he
ranks among the top 25 on the NCAA’s all-time wins list. DePaul is currently ranked ninth in the nation and hopes to close the 2001 campaign with its fourth straight Top 10 finish in the USA Today/NFCA final poll.
NATIONAL TEAM COACHES POOL
Mike Candrea, Arizona
Ken Eriksen, South Florida
Patty Gasso, Oklahoma
Michele Gromacki, Cal State Fullerton
Karen Johns, Florida
Eugene Lenti, DePaul
Jay Miller, Missouri
Pat Murphy, Alabama
John Rittman, Stanford
Kirk Walker, Oregon State
Linda Wells, Arizona State
Teresa Wilson, Washington
[For more information contact: Pete Rhoda, Assistant Director of Information Services, Conference USA (312) 553-0483, ext. 3013, Fax: (312) 553-0495]
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