USA Softball to Honor UCLA with 2020 USA Softball Collegiate Impact Award

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – USA Softball announced today it will honor the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as the winner of its 2020 USA Softball Collegiate Impact Award, which honors the top-contributing school on the 2020 U.S. Olympic Softball Team at the Tokyo Olympic Games. As part of the recognition, Martin Jarmond, director of athletics at UCLA, will be honored during the Team USA Collegiate Recognition Awards that will run in conjunction with the National Football Foundation’s 64th Annual Awards celebration on Dec. 6, 2022, in Las Vegas.

“It’s because of collegiate programs like UCLA and Athletic Directors like Martin Jarmond that help keep the sport of softball strong in our country and around the world,” said USA Softball Chief Executive Officer, Craig Cress. “The tireless efforts from the collegiate coaches and staff to help athletes master their craft – both on and off the field – is what makes the professional and international stages so superior. We cannot thank the coaches of UCLA and all our other collegiate softball programs enough for their dedication to preparing athletes for the highest stage.”

The 2020 U.S. Olympic Softball Team consisted of a 15-player roster filled with elite athletes from across the nation – all of which competed at the collegiate level. Leading the college programs in current/former athlete representation was UCLA, with four Bruins wearing the Red, White and Blue in Tokyo to earn UCLA  the 2020 USA Softball Collegiate Impact Award.  Ally Carda and Delaney Spaulding – alumni of UCLA and veterans of the U.S. Women’s National Team – helped lead the U.S. squad through pre-Olympic trainings while Rachel Garcia and Bubba Nickles rounded out their senior year and continued their preparations at the collegiate level before joining the WNT in Tokyo. The four Bruins contributed to Team USA’s silver medal finish at the Tokyo Olympic Games after softball’s 13-year hiatus from the Olympic program.

USA Softball joins seven other National Governing Bodies that will participate in this year’s Team USA Collegiate Recognition Awards – a celebration that will honor sport-specific contributors (NGB Collegiate Impact Awards) and overall Team USA contributors (Team USA Collegiate Impact Awards) to the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

More information about the Team USA Collegiate Recognition Awards – and about Team USA’s collegiate footprint in Tokyo – can be found online at TeamUSA.org/CollegiateImpact. To learn more about Team USA’s quest to the Tokyo Olympic silver medal finish, visit usasoftball.com.