Oklahoma CF Jayda Coleman Lands Spot on Team USA

Coleman and former Sooners slugger Jocelyn Alo will play in the softball World Cup this summer in Ireland.

John E. Hoover | Apr 14, 2023

Jayda Coleman is about to have a busy summer.

Oklahoma’s dynamic junior center fielder was named on Friday to Team USA’s World Softball Confederation World Cup team.

The event takes place July 11-15 in Ireland.

Coleman, who’s also a leading contender for NCAA player of the year as she hopes to help lead OU to a three-peat national championship in June, leads the Sooners with a .455 batting average and is tied for the team lead with 11 home runs. She leads the team by a wide margin with 30 walks.

She also has nine doubles, one triple, 29 RBIs and a .899 slugging percentage batting leadoff for the top-ranked Sooners. Coleman also is 11-of-11 on stolen bases and has not committed an error on defense.

The competition will consist of a two-stage format with 18 teams competing across three groups (Group A, B and C) in Stage 1 followed by Stage 2, which will be held in 2024 and will include the top two teams from each group battling it out in the finals.

Coleman isn’t the only Sooner on the squad. Two-time Big 12 Player of the Year and career home run queen Jocelyn Alo also was named to the team.

Competing in Group A, the U.S. will be joined by world-ranked No. 3 Chinese Taipei, No. 9 Australia, No. 16 Great Britain, No. 17 Ireland and No. 43 Botswana.

An additional 12 countries will compete in Group B and Group C.

The 2023 U.S. WNT World Cup Group A roster includes 13 returners from the 2022 season, including six from the Canada Cup, five from The World Games, five from the Pan American Championship and five from the Japan All-Star Series.

Published Apr 14, 2023

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.