June 5, 2001
Oklahoma City, Okla. - University of Missouri softball coach Jay Miller has been selected as one of three coaches for the USA National Red Team, as announced Monday by the Amateur Softball Association of America/USA Softball.
"It is a great honor for the University and the softball team to be selected by the USA softball committee," said coach Miller. "The National Team Camp was a great learning experience. I'm really looking forward to working with the other coaches."
Along with John Rittman, head coach at Stanford, and Kirk Walker, head coach at Oregon State, Miller was selected from a pool of 12 coaches from around the country to help lead one of two separate USA National teams. Three coaches were also selected for the USA Blue Team. Of those six coaches, a head coach and two assistants will go on to represent the United States in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
The two teams will compete against each other in the USA Softball Shootout, a West Coast exhibition tour, that will stop in Portland (June 8), Spokane (June 10), Sacramento (June 14) and Los Angeles (June 17).
USA Red will then travel to Honolulu, June 20-24, to represent the USA at the 2001 U.S. Cup, where they will face 2000 Olympic silver medalist Japan, bronze medalist Australia and fourth-place finisher China. The U.S. Cup will mark the first time Team USA has faced these international teams since the 2000 Olympic Games.
Both the red and blue teams will then travel to Vancouver, June 30-July 6, for the 2001 Canada Cup. The USA captured the gold medal and the bronze medal in 1999 when two teams were represented at the Canada Cup.
In 1998, Miller was selected as the head coach of the USA Softball alternate team. This team played against the U.S. Pan Am and Olympic Teams during the Coca-Cola USA Softball American Challenge Series during the summer of 1999. The team represented the USA in the 1999 Canada Cup where the team took third place. He served on the NCAA Women's Softball Committee from 1991-1997 and was a member of the USA Softball National Team Selection Committee that chose players and coaches for the 1996 Gold Medal winning U.S. Olympic Softball Team (1993-1996). He is currently on the NCAA Rules Committee and the NFCA All-American Committee.