University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Current UCLA assistant coaches Lisa Fernandez and Kirk Walker.
Five Bruin Alums In USA Softball Coaching Pool
February 09, 2017 | Softball
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OKLAHOMA CITY - USA Softball announced on Wednesday a list of 22 coaches, including five Bruin alums, who have been selected to the 2017-2019 USA Softball Women's National Team Coaching Pool. Named to the pool are current UCLA softball assistant coaches Lisa Fernandez and Kirk Walker, as well as Tairia Flowers, Gina Vecchione and Natasha Watley.
Head coaches and assistant coaches for the Women's National Team (WNT) and Junior Women's National Team (JWNT) will be selected from this list for all 2017, 2018 and 2019 competitions. Coaches may be required to participate in international events, player evaluations, selection camps and other specified events as part of the evaluation process. Coaches selected from this pool will have the opportunity to coach in some of the highest level softball competitions in the world over the course of the next three years.
Fernandez, who is in her 19th season at UCLA, was a member of the U.S. Women's National Team for the better part of two decades and was a three-time Olympic Gold Medalist (1996, 2000 and 2004). Walker, who is in his 16th year at UCLA, was part of the USA Softball National Team Coaching Pool ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games, also serving as an assistant for the USA Elite Team for three summers (2002-2004) and the USA Red National team (2001).
Flowers, currently the head softball coach at CSUN, served as the head coach of the JWNT in 2013 and as an assistant for the WNT in 2011 and 2012. A member of the U.S. National Team for much of the 2000s, she won an Olympic gold medal in 2004 and a silver medal in 2008. Vecchione, an associate head coach at Cal Poly, coached at UCLA for 13 seasons (2000-2012), won a silver medal with Team USA at the 1983 Pan American Games and was an assistant of Flowers on the 2016 USA Elite Team. Watley, the Director of Operations at CSUN, won an Olympic gold medal in 2004 and a silver medal in 2008, playing with the U.S. from 2002-2010.
In January, three Bruins, alum Ally Carda, senior Delaney Spaulding and sophomore Paige Halstead, were named to the 2017 WNT, while freshman Bubba Nickles and 2018 NLI signees Holly Azevedo and Briana Perez were named to the 2017 JWNT Training Team.
Players Mentioned
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