Just two days after playing the 2008 Olympic Gold medal game in Beijing, China and one day after hosting a press conference where Team USA was question about the games outcome, Coach Candrea retires as US softball coach.  This probably is not a big surprise since softball will not be part of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England.

Mike Candrea is probably one of the two most recognized softball coaches in the world.  Candrea has coached at the University of Arizona since 1986, earning over 1100 NCAA wins and eight NCAA Women’s College World Series titles. He is only one of five Division I softball coaches to win 1000 games. Incredibly, in his entire career at Arizona he has only failed to qualify for the WCWS twice, in 1986 and 1987. Arizona also failed to qualify in 2004, the year that Candrea was coaching the United States Women’s Softball Team to its third consecutive gold medal at the Athens Olympic Games.  Candrea also led the US National Team to two consecutive World Cup championships in 2006 and 2007.

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