Tairia Flowers

Tairia Flowers
Flowers in 2008
Current position
TitleHead coach
TeamLoyola Marymount
ConferenceWCC
Biographical details
Born (1981-01-09) January 9, 1981
Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
Playing career
2000–2003UCLA
2005Arizona Heat
PositionsFirst base, catcher
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
College Softball
2006UC Riverside (asst.)
2007–2010Long Beach State (asst.)
2011–2020Cal State Northridge
2021–presentLoyola Marymount
Professional Softball
2026-presentPortland Cascade
National team
2019USA Women's Softball (asst.)
Head coaching record
Overall346–323 (.517)
TournamentsNCAA Division I: 2-6
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
As player:

As head coach:

Awards
  • First-team NFCA All-American (2003)
  • Second-team NFCA All-American (2001)
  • 2× first-team All-Pac-10 (2001, 2003)
  • Second-team All-Pac-10 (2002)
  • 3× WCWS All-Tournament (2000, 2001, 2003)
Medal record
Women's softball
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place2004 AthensTeam competition
Silver medal – second place2008 BeijingTeam competition

Tairia Flowers (née Mims; born January 9, 1981) is an American softball coach and former player who is the head coach at Loyola Marymount University and for the Portland Cascade of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL). She played college softball at UCLA, winning a national championship in 2003 and finishing her career in the top-five for RBIs and home runs. Flowers was a member of the United States women's national softball team, winning a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics and a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Early life and college career

Born Tairia Mims in Tucson, Arizona, Flowers graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School in 1999 and played on the UCLA Bruins softball team from 2000 to 2003 at first base and catcher.[1] Helping UCLA make the championship game of the 2000 Women's College World Series, Mims hit .600 for the series and made the All-Tournament team.[1] UCLA also were runners-up in the 2001 Women's College World Series and won the 2003 Women's College World Series. She was a three-time All-Tournament honoree.[2][3] She was a first-team NFCA All-American and first-team All-Pac-10 honoree in 2003.[4]

College Statistics

Sources:[5][6][7]

YEAR G AB R H BA RBI HR 3B 2B TB SLG BB SO SB SBA
2000 59 160 23 48 .300 32 9 0 8 83 .518% 12 17 1 1
2001 68 213 54 80 .375 71 17 2 18 153 .718% 17 25 3 3
2002 64 189 34 68 .360 55 13 4 16 131 .693% 26 10 1 1
2003 61 178 49 80 .449 70 22 1 17 165 .927% 26 28 7 7
TOTALS 252 740 160 276 .373 228 61 7 59 532 .719% 81 80 12 12

International career

As a member of the United States women's national softball team beginning in 2001, Flowers won gold at the 2002 Women's Softball World Championship, 2003 Pan American Games, 2004 Summer Olympics, 2006 World Cup of Softball, and 2007 Pan American Games and silver at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[8][9]

Professional playing career

In 2005, Flowers played for the Arizona Heat of National Pro Fastpitch.[10]

Coaching career

In 2006, Flowers was an assistant coach at UC Riverside. From 2007 to 2010, Flowers was an assistant coach at Long Beach State, during which Long Beach State made the NCAA Tournament in 2008 and 2009.[10][11]

Beginning in 2011, Flowers became head coach at Cal State Northridge. Upon the conclusion of the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season, Flowers had an overall 259–263 record, with her first winning season in 2014 with a 31–26. She is the second-winningest coach in CSUN history.[12] In 2015, Flowers led Cal State Northridge to a 41–17 record (16–5 in the Big West Conference) with an NCAA Tournament appearance and the program's first sole Big West title.[11][13] In fall 2020 Flowers was named as the head coach at Loyola Marymount University.[14]

On December 23, 2025, Flowers was named as the first head coach for the expansion franchise Portland Cascade of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL).[15]

Personal life

Flowers is of African American and European descent.[8] She is married to Jason Flowers and has three children.[9]

Head coaching record

Sources:[12][16]

Record table
Season Team Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Cal State Northridge Matadors (Big West Conference) (2011–2020)
2011 Cal State Northridge 22–3110–115th
2012 Cal State Northridge 10–425–16T–8th
2013 Cal State Northridge 25–3111–13T–6th
2014 Cal State Northridge 31–268–136th
2015 Cal State Northridge 41–1716–51stNCAA Regional
2016 Cal State Northridge 34–2214–72nd
2017 Cal State Northridge 31–2211–10T–2nd
2018 Cal State Northridge 23–368–136th
2019 Cal State Northridge 26–2810–115th
2020 Cal State Northridge 16–80-0-----
Loyola Marymount Lions (West Coast Conference) (2021–present)
2021 Loyola Marymount 22-2110-52nd
2022 Loyola Marymount 37-1713-2T-1stNCAA Regional
2023 Loyola Marymount 28-2212-31stNCAA Regional
Cal State Northridge: 259–263 (.496)93–99 (.484)
Loyola Marymount: 87–60 (.592)35–10 (.778)
Total:346–323 (.517)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

References

  1. 1 2 "Tairia Mims". UCLA. Archived from the original on April 6, 2004. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  2. ↑ "UCLA WCWS Stats 2003". NCAA.org. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  3. ↑ "Division I Championships" (PDF). NCAA.org. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  4. ↑ "2002-03 Softball Year in Review". Pacific-10 Conference. July 14, 2003. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Final 2000 Softball Statistics Report" (PDF). Ncaa.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 20, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Final 2001 Softball Statistics Report" (PDF). Ncaa.org. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Archived Team-By-Team Final Statistics". Ncaa.org. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  8. 1 2 "Tairia Flowers". teamusa.org. Archived from the original on August 8, 2014. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  9. 1 2 "Tairia Flowers". lmulions.com. Loyola Marymount University. Archived from the original on May 31, 2022.
  10. 1 2 "Tairia Flowers". longbeachstate.com. California State University, Long Beach. Retrieved July 3, 2026.
  11. 1 2 "Tairia Flowers - 2018 Softball Coaching Staff - CSUN". Cal State Northridge. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  12. 1 2 "NCAA Statistics".
  13. ↑ "2015 Softball Schedule".
  14. ↑ Kinney, Ellie (October 27, 2020). "Meet Tairia Flowers, the accomplished new coach of LMU softball". The Los Angeles Loyolan. Retrieved November 13, 2020.
  15. ↑ Jones, Siera (December 23, 2025). "Cascade Names Olympic Gold Medalist Tairia Flowers as Inaugural Head Coach". Athletes Unlimited Softball League. Archived from the original on December 31, 2025.
  16. ↑ CSUN record book, p. 3
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.