Heather Tarr will serve as the Head Coach for the 2022 USA Softball Women’s National Team, the US governing body announced. Tarr will lead the red, white and blue at the World Games in Birmingham 2022, in addition to various international competitions throughout the year. She will replace Ken Eriksen in the role, after leading the team to a silver-medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Tarr will be the sixth female Head Coach at the helm of the US Women's National Softball Team following Rosalie Sorenson (1970), Marge Ricker (1982), Carol Spanks (1987), Shirley Topley (1991) and Margie Wright (1998).
Tarr joined the USA Softball program as an Assistant Coach for the women’s national team and helped guide the 2017 roster to a gold medal finish at the Pan American Championship in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Returning to the coaching staff in 2018, Tarr once again had a gold medal season with the US team who stood atop the podium at the WBSC World Championship in Chiba.
In 2019, Tarr served as the head coach for the U-19 women’s national team that won the WBSC U-19 Women’s Softball World Cup in Irvine. Most recently, Tarr served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Olympic Softball Team at Tokyo 2020.
“I look forward to the opportunity to help the United States build toward its future and am honored to be charged with an eager mindset of adding to the foundations laid by current and past USA Softball athletes and coaches,” said Tarr. “I feel prepared, inspired and compelled to take on this challenge.”
“We are honoured to have Coach Tarr leading our Women’s National Team for the 2022 season,” said USA Softball CEO, Craig Cress. “Since being involved as a head coach for the Junior Women’s National Team and assistant coach for the Women’s National Team, Coach Tarr has played a key role in continuing the legacy of USA Softball while shaping and developing the program throughout the last few years.”
