OKLAHOMA CITY — Utah Valley head softball coach Cody Thomson is headed to Oklahoma City with the US Women's Elite National team for a training camp ahead of the upcoming Japan All-Star Series, set to take place July 4-8 in Nagoya, Fujinomiya, and Yokohama, Japan.
The team will begin its training camp on Wednesday, June 26, and cap off the camp with a pair of exhibition games against No. 13 Great Britain on June 29 and 30. The games will be part of back-to-back tripleheaders that feature the Oklahoma City Spark, the US U-18 WNT, and the USWNT that will be competing later this summer at the WBSC World Cup.
The US Elite Team will then make the trek to Japan for a three-game series against world-ranked No. 2 Japan. The team is led by 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.
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 three seasons at Utah Valley, Thomson has produced five All-WAC selections in Linnah Rebolledo, Madison Carr, Halle Morris, and Megan Gibbs (twice). Morris was also named to the NFCA All-West Region first team. 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 and the Hub City Adelitas in the Women's Professional Fastpitch League. His teams have also seen tremendous success in the classroom, including 24 Easton/NFCA Scholar-Athletes, 31 Academic All-WAC honorees, and seven CSC Academic All-District recipients.
