July 31, 2010

OKLAHOMA CITY - Alabama head coach Patrick Murphy will join a delegation of 25, including the 17 member USA Softball Junior National Team on a trip to Bogota, Colombia, on Monday to compete in the III Pan American (18-Under) Softball Championship. Murphy will be serving as an assistant for Team USA, while trying to help USA Softball bring home another gold medal and qualify for the ISF IX Junior Women's World Championships in Cape Town, South Africa, next December.

"This will be an entirely new adventure for all 17 members of the team," Murphy said. "Just to see their excitement wearing red, white and blue will be worth the trip. I think they all realize what a great honor it is to wear USA across your chest."

The junior national team is made up of athletes from seven states: Arizona, California, Florida, Ohio, Oregon, Maryland and New Mexico. The five-member USA Softball Women's National Team Selection Committee based on performances at the 2010-11 USA Softball Junior Women's National Team Selection Camp selected the players for the team.

Team USA is led by head coach Karen Johns, a former assistant under Murphy at Alabama. Suzy Brazney, the head coach at Golden West College and Stacy Iveson, the head coach at Yavapai College will join Murphy in assisting Johns in Colombia.

Fans can follow Coach Murphy's journey to Colombia with daily updates here on RollTide.com as well as the coach's twitter account. Murphy's tweets can be found at twitter.com/UACoachMurphy.