Gerice Olson enters her second year as an assistant coach with the UCF softball team in 2011-12. Olson works primarily with the Knights[apos] outfielders.
Under Olson[apos]s guidance, the Knights outfield had a banner year defensively as the starting outfield group made just 4 errors on the season. Senior CF Vanessa Perez was honored with Conference USA Second Team honors and freshman LF Kahley Novak was named to the C-USA All-Freshman team.
Olson comes to UCF after having spent five years as the head coach at NCAA Division II University of Mary, where she posted an overall record of 133-132 and led the Marauders to two Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference postseason tournaments. During her tenure, Olson registered a winning record in four seasons at the helm of the U-Mary squad.
Under Olson[apos]s guidance, student-athletes at U-Mary earned two NFCA/Louisville Slugger All-America honors, three NFCA/Louisville Slugger Division II All-North Central Region First Team accolades, three Daktronics Softball All-Central Region selections, 10 NSIC All-Conference honors, one NSIC Rookie of the Year, one NAIA All-Dakota Athletic Conference first team choice, 11 NSIC Players of the Week, 18 NSIC Academic All-Conference honors and 12 NFCA Academic All-Americans.
While in Bismarck, N.D., Olson also served as the Marauders[apos] senior women[apos]s administrator and was an instructor.
Olson[apos]s head coaching career began in 2004 when she was named the head softball coach at Dakota State University. In only one season with the Trojans, Olson posted a 12-26 record in 2005 and led her team to a sixth place finish in the DAC standings.
Prior to her stint at Dakota State, Olson began her collegiate coaching career as both a graduate assistant and then an assistant coach at South Dakota State University from 2002-04.
Olson served as the head girl[apos]s softball coach at Buffalo High School in Minnesota in 2002, while also having been a student assistant coach at North Dakota State, a two-time assistant with USA Athletes International and a camp instructor at both Fastpitch Softball Development and Triple Crown Sports.
Olson played softball at North Dakota State from 1997-2000, where she and the Bison softball team won the 2000 NCAA Division II National Championship, and Olson earned a spot on the national championship all-tournament team. Olson was also named to the NCAA North Central Region All-Tournament Team, was a North Central Conference Player of the Week, a two-time GTE College Division II Academic All-District VII Second Team selection, a four-time NFCA Scholar-Athlete and earned the NCC Academic All-Conference Award during her collegiate playing career at NDSU.
A native of Buffalo, Minn., Olson graduated from North Dakota State in 2000 with a bachelor[apos]s of science in physical education, before earning her master[apos]s of science in HPER with an emphasis in exercise science from South Dakota State. She is currently pursuing a master[apos]s of arts in coaching and athletic administration from Concordia University at Irvine (Calif.).