USA Baseball announce Coaching Staff for All-American Women’s Baseball Classic in Durham

USA Baseball has announced the coaching staff for the upcoming 2025 All-American Women’s Baseball Classic powered by USA Baseball. The event will take place from 1 to 3 August, 2025 at the ballpark of the Durham Bulls in Durham, North Carolina.

Women’s National Team alumnae Kristin Caldwell, Tamara Holmes, and Alex Oglesby, along with Ila Borders, will all serve as managers for the event. 2024 U-12 National Team Assistant Coach Josh Ellison, American Girls Baseball board member Mike Pankow, longtime USA Baseball evaluator Dave Tykoski, and seven-time national team coach Tanner Vesely will assist each manager. Oglesby and Ellison will coach the Belles, Caldwell and Vesely will coach the Blue Sox, Borders and Tykoski will coach the Comets, while Holmes and Pankow will coach the Peaches.

Additionally, 2025 U-18 Baseball National Team manager Rick Eckstein and Training Camp coaches Guy Civitello and Kirk Champion will attend the AAWBC as evaluators and lead an optional workout that will be held on 2 August at the National Training Complex in Cary.

“We are very excited to announce our coaching staff for the All-American Women’s Baseball Classic powered by USA Baseball,” said Women’s National Team Director Makenzie Kelly. “Everyone on this staff has either been involved with our Women’s National Team over the years as a player or coach, or is an advocate for girls and women in baseball. We look forward to having this group of coaches not only help to identify players for future national team programming, but also provide an unparalleled experience for our players attending the event.”

USA Baseball and the Durham Bulls will host the All-American Women’s Baseball Classic in conjunction with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) and American Girls Baseball (AGB), with support from Major League Baseball (MLB).

The Classic will be an identification event for future Women’s National Team programming while paying tribute to the AAGPBL. Players will be split into four teams representing the original AAGPBL teams of 1943: the South Bend Blue Sox, Racine Belles, Kenosha Comets, and Rockford Peaches. The event format will follow a round-robin format with each team competing in a total of three games apiece across the three days, and a champion will be crowned based on a point system. All six games will be broadcast for free on MLB.com, MLB.TV, and in the MLB App.

USA, who finished second in the WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup Finals last year behind seven time champions Japan, have been World Champions twice in the first two editions of the WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup in 2004 and 2006 with Japan having won the seven editions since.