TAMPA, NOV. 14, 2016 – USF softball head coach Ken Eriksen has been rewarded for being an outstanding ambassador of the sport for nearly 30 years.
Eriksen recently received softball's highest honor when he was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame's at the 36th annual ASA/USA Softball celebration in Shreveport, La.
With an 863-436-1 record, Eriksen is the winningest coach in the history of USF Athletics and he's one of only 22 active coaches with 800 or more career wins. Eriksen has led USF to one 60-win season, six 50-win seasons and 15 40-plus win seasons since 1997. Under his guidance, USF has made 12 trips to NCAA Regionals with two NCAA Regional championship wins and a NCAA Super Regional victory that paved the way for the program's first Women's College World Series trip in 2012.
Eriksen has won five conference titles and he's coached six All-Americans, including two-time All-American Monica Triner (1998 and 1999) and three-time All-American pitcher Sara Nevins (2012, 2013, 2014), along with 19 All-Region selections and 10 NCAA All-Regional Team members.
Aside from his USF duties, Eriksen has been the head coach for the U.S. Women's National Team since 2011. He became the first male in USA Softball history to represent the organization as both a player and a head coach.
Eriksen first shined at USF as a baseball player, posting a .315 batting average and a 2.84 ERA while playing five different positions during his collegiate career.
After earning his bachelor's degree in political science, Eriksen transitioned to a highly successful softball playing career that included excellence at the international level.
Recently completing his fifth year as the U.S. Women's National Team Head Coach, Eriksen has been alongside and at the forefront of coaching some of the greatest athletes the softball world has ever seen. Eriksen began playing ASA/USA Softball when he joined the Clearwater Bombers in the ASA Men's Major Fast Pitch Nationals. Eriksen was a part of Miller-Toyota and the Tampa Smokers up until 1997 when he won the Men's Major Fast Pitch National Championship with his fellow teammates. Eriksen racked up additional honors on the international scene, earning a silver medal at the Pan American Games (1991) and was a three-time Olympic Festival participant (1993, 1994 and 1995), where he took home an additional silver medal at the 1995 Olympic Festival.
Eriksen retired shortly after playing for the USA Select Team, which was the first American Athletic Team to compete in communist Cuba in over 30 years. After hanging up his cleats he remained in the game as a coach. His first Head Coach role came in 1997, when he led the USA Softball Junior Men's National Team at the WBSC Junior Men's World Championship in St. John's, Newfoundland. Serving on the ASA/USA Softball Board of Directors, Eriksen contributed to the rewrite of criteria for the selection process to meet USOC mandates as an Elite Athlete Representative.
Five years later, he joined the Women's National Team as an assistant coach in 2002 – the same year the team captured a Gold Medal at the WBSC Women's World Championship. A highlight of his Team USA coaching resume includes being an assistant coach in the 2003 Pan Am Games which won Gold and going on to coach at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens where the U.S. Olympic Softball Team would put on one of the most dominant performances in Olympic history. Eriksen tacked on another Gold Medal as an assistant coach at the WBSC Championship in Caracas, Venezuela.
In 2011, Eriksen took over the Women's National Team Program, continuing the legacy established before him and producing a Gold Medal at the 2011 Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. For the countless individuals within the ASA/USA Softball organization and the players he has coached, Ken Eriksen has made a lasting impact on the game of softball.
