It’s a sign that most Sooner softball fans understand. A runner is heading to third base and the head coach begins making circles with her arm. The runner hits the bag at third and heads for home.
When University of Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso was asked by USA Softball to become the head coach of the U.S. National team through the 2028 Olympic Games, it was like heading for home, completing the cycle.
The Sooner coaching legend, currently the longest tenured head coach on the OU staff, had heard from USA Softball before about joining the coaching pool for the U.S. team. The coach, who is in her 31st year of the Sooner staff, knew the timing just wasn’t right.
“The kids were young. I was building the OU program and I knew it wasn’t right for me.”
Fast forward to the last year and things had changed.
“USA Softball has changed the way they do a lot of things. I got word of their interest in me. The more I thought about it, things seemed to fit. My sons have their own jobs and families. The word got out that the softball games might be played in OKC at Devon Park, a facility I am very familiar with. It seemed like pieces were coming together, that we could make this work, and I accepted.”
For Gasso, this next step follows a natural progression. She learned to play softball in a park next to the Torrance, California, home where she lived with her single, working mom, and her brother and sister. The siblings had strict instructions: when you get home from school, change out of school clothes into play clothes and head to the park until their mom, usually still dressed in her work clothes, would come play with them if there was still light and teach them the game she loved.
“We lived next to a park that had diamonds and we learned to play. Mom loved any sport team that was from LA. She loves the Dodgers and she taught me to love them. She was a good athlete, but it was uncool in those days for women to play sports so she taught me. She was a closet sports fan and we bonded over sports, especially the Dodgers, much like fathers and sons. Softball can still bring her back,” Gasso explained.
Today, Janet Froehlich, Gasso’s mom, is living with full-blown Alzheimer’s. Softball is one thing that can break through.
Earlier this spring, Gasso took her very young OU team to California for six games in four days in four different cities. The final game was at Long Beach State, and Gasso’s mom was able to come to the game with her caretakers. Former teammates and players showed as Gasso had played at Long Beach State and coached at Long Beach City College before taking the job at OU in 1995.
“The trip was, in large part, to introduce our very young team to the day-to-day of college softball and how we did it. We had 14 newcomers, five who were transfers, and we have a way of doing things that is successful,” Gasso said.
“It was a trip to get them used to playing a game, then getting on a bus and heading to the next destination. We wanted to test these young athletes, and I saw how much they grew on the trip. They had to learn how to take care of themselves, how to take care of their bodies at this level. It’s just so different from travel ball, and we threw them out there for a very unique experience. They learned a lot and they grew up a lot.
“Mom was as involved as she could be,” Gasso continued. “When she is trying to communicate but can’t remember the words, she just says ‘black ... white ... blue” and I know what she is trying to say. Watching us play, I heard she said those words quite a bit. I think she liked what she saw. That and seeing people I had started this career journey with made the game extra special.”
There was another thing that gave the trip extra significance. Gasso arranged to play six different opponents. Her hope was that each school would sell out the game with the four-time NCAA champion, adding money to their budgets.
“I wanted to help the California schools build their programs,” she continued. “I hoped we could do something to promote the game, bringing the four-time national champion to their field, while we did some much-needed team building for us. I think we succeeded on all counts.”
[Ed. Note: The Oklahoma softball coaching staff was named the 2024 ATEC/NFCA Division I National Coaching Staff of the Year for the third straight season. The Sooner coaching staff, also including associate head coaches Jennifer Rocha and JT Gasso and assistant coach Falepolima Steele, guided the program to its fourth consecutive and eighth overall national title in 2024. It marks the third straight and seventh overall national coaching staff of the year honor for Gasso and her staffs, also receiving the award in 2000, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2022 and 2023.]