Oklahoma softball just summitted the mountain once again, winning their fourth straight national championship. Although, head coach Patty Gasso claims it may have been the toughest yet.
“It wasn’t easy, this season,” said Gasso. “I hear them and I agree. It’s probably the hardest coaching season that I’ve had in a while because of a lot of the naysayers, a lot of — I don’t know.”
She continued: “I think we’ve hit some times where we were kind of low,” said Gasso of Oklahoma’s 2024 season, where they only finished as the No. 2 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament, not their typical No. 1 overall spot.
“I just felt they really look forward to post-season. They’re very resilient. They feel invincible. That’s the way they play,” added Gasso, who says that her players really don’t get too rattled.
“You hear their faith has a lot to do with this. So they’re never afraid. They’re not afraid to lose. This is bigger than a game for them. It’s about life. It’s about trust. It’s about all kinds of things that they’ve changed each other’s lives with.”
The pressure is pretty immense when you’re the three-time reigning champs, and that expectation certainly weighed on the team throughout the year, per Gasso.
“It’s heavy. It’s just I don’t know how to explain how heavy,” she said. “Heavy is a head that wears the crown is the one thing that really stuck out. I heard someone say that. That really has felt true. It’s been exhausting. These players are exhausted, but they keep going. It’s the love for each other. It’s the love for the game. It’s the love for the university. But they’re elite athletes who have extreme passion.”
Next, Gasso went on to discuss how she had to change this season. Yes, a coach that’s won three straight national titles looked in the mirror and decided that she did in fact have to adjust her approach, especially when it came to some of the team’s antics.
“When I first saw these guys throw the bat down, after a walk, I’m like, ‘What are you doing? Don’t do that. You’re showing up the umpire or you’re going to hit somebody.’ But we do it. They do it at practice. I’ve learned to allow them to be who they are. The old coach of me would not allow any of this.”
With this group, Patty Gasso didn’t think just putting her foot down would work. Instead, she had to meet her players on their own terms.
“This generation, they’ve taught me a lot about coaching. They taught me how to accept who they are and how it looks. I mean, I think that has a lot to do with a lot of things, that I just allowed them to be them. It’s hard sometimes because some of it I’m like, ‘Oh, no.’ But it’s important to them. They’ve taught me how to coach better.”
Patty Gasso continues to evolve and change as a coach every year to find the best way to lead each individual team to success — and that’s why she’s now got four straight national titles.
The post Patty Gasso calls 2024 season ‘probably the hardest coaching season that I’ve had in a while’ appeared first on On3.