CARY, N.C. – USA Baseball and the Durham Bulls today announced the coaching staff for the 2025 All-American Women’s Baseball Classic (AAWBC) powered by USA Baseball, which will be held August 1-3 at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP) in Durham, North Carolina. The event will be held in conjunction with the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) and American Girls Baseball (AGB), with support from Major League Baseball (MLB).
The AAWBC will consist of four teams as a tribute to the four original AAGPBL teams of 1943: the Kenosha Comets, Racine Belles, Rockford Peaches, and South Bend Blue Sox. Women’s National Team alumnae Kristin Caldwell, Tamara Holmes, and Alex Oglesby, along with Ila Borders, will all serve as managers for the event. 2024 12U National Team Assistant Coach Josh Ellison, American Girls Baseball board member Mike Pankow, longtime USA Baseball evaluator Dave Tykoski, and seven-time national team coach Tanner Vesely will assist each manager. Oglesby and Ellison will coach the Belles, Caldwell and Vesely will coach the Blue Sox, Borders and Tykoski will coach the Comets, while Holmes and Pankow will coach the Peaches.
Additionally, 2025 18U National Team manager Rick Eckstein and Training Camp coaches Guy Civitello and Kirk Champion will attend the AAWBC as evaluators and lead an optional workout that will be held on August 2 at the National Training Complex in Cary. The workout will serve as an extra opportunity to be evaluated for this year’s Women’s National Team Development Program (WNTDP), which will be held from October 15-19 in Cary.
“We are very excited to announce our coaching staff for the All-American Women’s Baseball Classic powered by USA Baseball,” said Women’s National Team Director Makenzie Kelly. “Everyone on this staff has either been involved with our Women’s National Team over the years as a player or coach, or is an advocate for girls and women in baseball. We look forward to having this group of coaches not only help to identify players for future national team programming, but also provide an unparalleled experience for our players attending the event.”
Each manager will bring more than 20 years of playing and coaching experience to the event. Oglesby, who has been an assistant coach for the Women’s National Team four times, and Caldwell, a three-time alum and current high school baseball coach, played on the inaugural squad that won a gold medal at the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) Women’s World Cup. Holmes is a seven-time alumna and three-time gold medalist and she, along with Borders and Oglesby, all have professional playing experience. The three of them have been heavily devoted to growing the game and spend time on a year-round basis coaching at girls’ development events jointly hosted in partnership with Major League Baseball including the Trailblazer Series, Elite Development Invitational (EDI), Breakthrough Series and MLB GRIT: Girls ID Tour.
The group of assistant coaches will bring a wide array of experience to this year’s staff. Pankow currently serves on the American Girls Baseball Board and will return as a coach for the third time to the AAWBC, and Ellison, Tykoski and Vesely have been involved with USA Baseball for nearly two decades. Ellison and Tykoski have been Task Force members and evaluators at various identification events and national team training camps over the years, and Ellison made his national team coaching debut last summer by helping the 12U National Team win gold at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-12 Baseball World Cup Americas Qualifier. Vesely, who is a seven-time national team coach, has been a part of five gold-medal winning national teams, highlighted by his stint as the manager for the 2015 12U National Team. Tykoski and Vesely have been involved in past Women’s National Team programming, as Tykoski was a coach at the 2023 Women’s National Open and Vesely coached at the 2019 Women’s National Team Trials and 2023 Training Camp. All four coaches have extensive coaching backgrounds at either the high school or college level.
The event will follow a round-robin format with each team competing in a total of three games apiece across the three days, and a champion will be crowned based on a point system. Additionally, a reception will be held on July 31 for all participants that will include a panel discussion and a showing of “A League of Their Own,” and athletes will serve as clinicians for a free PLAY BALL event that will be held on August 1 at the DBAP.
All six games will be broadcast for free on MLB.com, MLB.TV, and in the MLB App. For the full schedule, as well as ticket information, click HERE. To keep up with the latest news on the All-American Women’s Baseball Classic powered by USA Baseball and the Women’s National Team, follow @USABaseballWNT on Twitter/X and @USABaseball on Instagram.
The full coaching staff for the All-American Women’s Baseball Classic powered by USA Baseball is as follows, with full biographies for each coach linked below.
RACINE BELLES
- Alex Oglesby – Manager
- Josh Ellison – Assistant Coach
KENOSHA COMETS
- Ila Borders – Manager
- Dave Tykoski – Assistant Coach
ROCKFORD PEACHES
- Tamara Holmes – Manager
- Mike Pankow – Assistant Coach
SOUTH BEND BLUE SOX
- Kristin Caldwell – Manager
- Tanner Vesely – Assistant Coach
EVALUATORS
