USA Baseball announce coaching staff for Women's National Team Development Programme

USA Baseball announced the coaching staff for the 2025 Women’s National Team Development Program (WNTDP), which will be held October 15-19 at the National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.

The WNTDP will serve as a key component in the ongoing identification and preparation of future Women’s National Team programming in 2026 and 2027. It will feature a 40-woman roster and include five days of intrasquad games and positional workouts, skill development sessions, and off-field educational seminars. Additionally, Baseball Canada’s Women’s National Team will compile a roster to attend the event in Cary, making this year’s WNTDP a joint event.

The staff will feature Rick Eckstein, who will serve as hitting coordinator, Kirk Champion, who will be the pitching coordinator, and Jeff Reboulet, who will join as infield coordinator. The trio will oversee all aspects of the skill development side of the WNTDP and assist with evaluating players for future Women’s National Team programming. Eckstein led the U-18 National Team to their 11th World Cup earlier this year in Okinawa, Japan. Champion has been a part of several high-profile Professional National Team staffs, and Reboulet held a 12-year career in the big leagues.

The WNTDP roster will be split into Stars and Stripes teams, each with a four-person coaching staff to accompany it.

Hall of Famer Billy Wagner will manage the Stars team. Five-time U-12 National Team gold medalist coach Jason Sekany will be the pitching coach, while three-time medalist Kristin Caldwell and 2012 national team coach Jenny Dalton-Hill will join as assistant coaches.

Sydney 2000 Olympics gold medalist Mike Kinkade will manage the Stripes team. Ila Borders, who pitched four years in men's professional teams, will serve as pitching coach, and 2004 gold medalist and four-time Women’s National Team staff member Alex Oglesby, alongside five-time national team gold medalist coach Tanner Vesely, will be the assistant coaches.

"We are extremely excited about the staff that has been assembled for this year's Women's National Team Development Program," said Women's National Team Program Director Makenzie Kelly. "This is a star-studded crew that includes coaches from many different levels of the game with a proven track record of upholding USA Baseball's gold-medal standard. I am confident that this staff will be able to provide a first-class experience for the 40 players attending while helping to evaluate players for future national team programming as we prepare for the WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup Group Stage in 2026."

The United States will host one of the two groups of the WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup Group Stage 2026 at the International Women's Baseball Centre in Rockford, Illinois, from July 22 to 26 next year. The dates and venue for the second group will be announced at a later time.

Four teams have already qualified. World No. 28 Great Britain became the first team to qualify when they won the European Championship in August.

No. 4 Venezuela, No. 6 Mexico and No. 9 Cuba earned three of the four American continental spots in the Women's Baseball Pan American Championship in September. WBSC Americas will announce the qualification process for the fourth continental spot later.

Ten teams will compete for four Women's Baseball World Cup Group Stage 2026 spots at the VI Women's Baseball Asia Cup, taking place from October 26 to November 3 in Hangzhou, China.

Oceania will qualify one team and the WBSC will award two Wild Cards to complete the set of 12 participants.