OKLAHOMA CITY — USA Softball has announced that Utah Valley University head softball coach Cody Thomson will be serving as an assistant coach with the US Women's Elite Team at the upcoming Japan All-Star Series this July.
Thomson will serve under head coach Kelly Kretschman, a two-time Olympian and former professional softball star who played collegiately at Alabama, where she was a four-time All-American. Joining Thomson as assistant coaches are Western Illinois head coach Alisa Goler and Kentucky head coach Rachel Lawson.
"I am honored to work with the USA Softball team," said Thomson. "I can't wait to work with the athletes and continue to grow in the sport of softball."
The team will hold a training camp at the USA Softball headquarters in Oklahoma City beginning June 26. Team USA will then play two games against world-ranked No. 13 Great Britain on June 29 and 30 at Hall of Fame Stadium. USA Softball will then head to Japan, where it will play three games against world-ranked No. 2 Japan from July 4-8.
This summer marks Thomson's third stint with USA Softball as a coach. Thomson most recently joined the Eagles for the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, as the team's pitching coach, and helped guide the team to a 6-0 record and the gold medal. Thomson also traveled with USA Softball to Dublin, Ireland last summer for the group stage of the WBSC World Cup as part of the team's support staff.
Prior to his coaching days, Thomson had a 14-year playing career in fastpitch softball as a pitcher that included a stint as a member of USA Men's National Team. He helped the team to a second-place finish at the ISF Men's World Cup in Prague, going 2-0 with 18 strikeouts in the circle. He was also named Best Pitcher at the NAFA World Series in 2006 and was a four-time ASA All-American.
In his two completed seasons at Utah Valley, Thomson has produced three All-WAC selections in Linnah Rebolledo, Madison Carr, and Megan Gibbs. Rebolledo has also gone on to join the Mexican National Softball Team, and currently plays professionally for Charros de Jalisco in the Liga Mexicana de Softbol. His teams have also seen tremendous success in the classroom, including 14 Easton/NFCA Scholar-Athletes, 19 Academic All-WAC honorees, and three CSC Academic All-District recipients.
Prior to becoming the head coach at Utah Valley, Thomson had been with the University of Utah softball program since 2005 and was part of the program's transition into the Pac 12. He was elevated to a full-time assistant in 2009 and had been in that role for 12 seasons.
Several players experienced tremendous success during Thomson's time at Utah, including two-time Pac 12 Player of the Year Hannah Flippen (2016 & 2017), who also was named an NFCA First-Team All-American. He helped coach 32 All-Pac 12 players during his time in Salt Lake City. At Utah, Thomson also coached 15 NFCA All-Pacific Region players, a three-time All-American, and members of the USA, Mexican, and British National Teams. That list includes three-time All-Pac 12 honoree Anissa Urtez, who was on UVU's coaching staff in 2019.
ABOUT USA SOFTBALL
The Women's National Team (WNT) is the most decorated program in the sport's history with five Olympic medal finishes, 10 Pan American Games gold medals and 12 WBSC World Championship gold medals. Team USA has advanced to every Olympic gold medal game in the history of the sport, claiming three consecutive Olympic gold medals at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games and two Olympic silver medals at the 2008 and 2020 Olympic Games. Softball will return to the Olympic Games at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
