Mississippi State’s Jay Miller to head USA Softball

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Mississippi State Coach Jay Miller was chosen Monday as head coach of the U.S. softball program, beating out a field of 13 other candidates which included Suzy Brazney of Golden West College and Cal State Northridge Coach Barbara Jordan.

Miller has spent most of the past 15 years with the national softball program, leading the American junior team to a world championship in 2007. With Team USA he replaces Mike Candrea, who won Olympic gold and silver medals, two Pan Am titles and two World Cups in six years.

The rest of the U.S. national team staff will be chosen from the remaining 13 coaches in the national team pool. Those selections will be announced later. On the schedule for rebuilding Team USA this summer is July’s Canada Cup, a likely rematch with Olympic champion Japan in the Japan Cup and August’s Pan Am Games qualifier in Guadalajara.

Softball, along with baseball, has been dropped from the Olympic schedule for the 2012 London Games but the International Olympic Committee is scheduled to debate both sports’ return to the Games at the IOC meetings this fall.

‘Our sport is really at a huge crossroads after the dismissal from the 2012 Olympic Games,’ Miller said. ‘Things are uncertain and it is an important summer for softball worldwide and [for] the U.S. to get the backing from the IOC and [to] get the votes to get back on the Olympic program.’

-- Kevin Baxter

Photo: Jay Miller. Credit: Courtesy of mstathletics.com