“I am honored to be among the finalists for this award,” said Candrea. “I am privileged to be coaching this group of athletes and to be around the staff we have. This is a great honor for the USA Softball program and demonstrates the outstanding effort of what these athletes have done on the field.”

Candrea is one of five finalists whose 2007 efforts are being honored. This marks the fifth time he has been honored as a finalist and most notably no one coach has been honored as many times as he has. In 2004, following the Athens Olympic Games, Candrea won the National Coach of the Year after leading the team to its third consecutive Olympic Gold.

In 2007, Candrea led the U.S. Women's National Team to a 24-1 season record and to gold medal finishes at the Canada Cup (10-0), the World Cup (6-0), the Pan American Games (4-0) and the Japan Cup (4-1). His team outscored opponents 183-14 while the pitching staff combined for a 0.20 ERA over three summer competitions. As the head coach for the University of Arizona, Candrea led the Wildcats to back-to-back NCAA National Championship titles, was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year for the 10th time, and won his 1100th NCAA Division I game.

The other finalists include Guy Baker (Long Beach, Calif./Women's Water Polo), Bob Bowman (Ann Arbor, Mich./Swimming), David Johnson (Colorado Springs, Colo./Shooting), and Tom Terhaar (Monmouth Junction, N.J./Rowing). Each year, 43 Olympic and Pan American sport organizations select their nominations for the National, Developmental, Volunteer and/or Paralympic Coaches of the Year as part of the USOC Coach of the Year Recognition Program. Five finalists were selected in each of the categories with the exception of Paralympics which included three.

About ASA

The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation’s largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 83 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 240,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit www.asasoftball.com.

About USA Softball

USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won eight World Championship titles including the last six consecutive as well as claimed two World Cup of Softball titles. For more information about USA Softball, please visit http://www.usasoftball.com/.