USF's Eriksen Named to 2003 Pan Am and 2004 Olympic Team Coaching Staff

USA Softball announced on Monday that the University of South Florida softball’s head coach Ken Eriksen has been named to the 2003 Women’s Pan Am and 2004 Olympic Team coaching staff.

Eriksen and John Rittman (Stanford University) will serve as assistants to head coach Mike Candrea (University of Arizona) as the trio will attempt to lead the Women’s National Team to its unprecedented fifth-straight Pam American title, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, August 1-17, and to its third (of a possible three) consecutive gold medal, in Athens, Greece (summer 2004).

“I think that this is great recognition of what our program has done at USF over the past five, six, seven years now,” said Eriksen.

“This is a nice accolade for both our team and our school.”

Eriksen has proven himself a valuable leader for Team USA for nearly two years now. In 2001, he served as head coach of the gold-medal Pan Am Games team, and, as an assistant, helped guide the team to four more titles in 2002, including the U.S. Cup in Honolulu, Hawaii, the Canada Cup in Vancouver, B.C., the ISF Women’s World Championships in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and the Japan Cup in Yokohama, Japan.

Since 1997, Eriksen has led USF to a 313-172-1 (.645) overall mark - including 50 or more wins in each of the Bulls’ 1997, 1998 and 2003 seasons - two conference championships (SASA -1997, 1998) and four NCAA tournament appearances (1997, 1998, 2001, 2003). His teams have spent a combined 66 weeks in Top 25 polls, with his 1998 squad achieving a ranking as high as No. 5.