Recently completing his fifth year as the U.S. Women’s National Team Head Coach, Ken Eriksen has been alongside and at the forefront of coaching some of the greatest athletes the softball world has ever seen. As a player, Eriksen began playing ASA/USA Softball when he joined the Clearwater Bombers, playing from 1987-1992 while batting .347 in 1992 and .456 in the ASA Men’s Major Fast Pitch Nationals. Eriksen was a part of the Miller-Toyota team and 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 (1958). 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 Athletic 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 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.
