World-renowned head coach and former Team USA head will assist the Team Italy coaching staff as special advisor just in time for the , which the defending Euro champion Italian softball squad will host in Friuli Venezia Giulia from June 27-July 3, 2021.
Mike Candrea said, “I am very excited to work with the Italian National Team in their preparation for the European Championships and ultimately their journey to Tokyo and participation in the Olympic Games. This is a great opportunity to give back to the game that has been so good to me over the past 40 years and also pay tribute to my Italian heritage and their former National Team coach, Enrico Obletter, who passed away suddenly. Looking forward to helping and advising the excellent coaching staff that they have in place anyway I can!”
Mike Candrea will send Team Italy off to the with hopes his winning ways will rub off in the international competition. In addition to coaching the eight-time national champion University of Arizona Wildcats, he also coached Team USA to an Olympic gold medal in Athens in 2004 and a silver medal in Beijing in 2008. Recognizing his invaluable contribution to , Mike Candrea was presented with the United States Olympic Committee's prestigious award.
As a way of honoring his ancestral heritage and Italian family roots, Mike Candrea has embraced the opportunity to work with Team Italy. He already has indirectly been on the job as one of his current Arizona Wildcat players, freshman , is a member of the Team Italy women’s softball squad.
After coaching five years at Central Arizona College and winning two NJCAA national championship titles, Mike Candrea has enjoyed more than three and a half decades of unparalleled success at the helm of the University of Arizona softball program. He has been named National Coach of the Year four times and has received six Regional Coach of the Year honors. Mike Candrea owns a 1,664-429-2 (.795) coaching record to date at the University of Arizona.
Having won close to 1,700 games and eight national championships as well as appeared in 23 Women's College World Series, University of Arizona head coach Mike Andrea brings a high standard of excellence to Team Italy. He was inducted into the National Softball Hall of Fame in 2017. In addition, the legendary coach was inducted into the NFCA Hall of Fame in 1996, the Pima County Hall of Fame in 1996, the Central Arizona College Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 2019. Forza #Italia! #PerEnrico
by Roberto Angotti
