Oklahoma softball just won their fourth straight national championship, but the ride to glory was a little bumpy this time, according to Sooner star Jayda Coleman.
Of course, when your program has won the title three straight years, the assumption is you’ll just go ahead and do it again. Oklahoma did, but not without plenty of doubt along the way, especially this season, since they were only the No. 2 overall seed compared to their typical spot at No. 1.
“Yeah, honestly the whole season was tough. For me personally, I know I had very high expectations. Even right off the bat playing our first game, I felt the pressure. I felt the expectations,” Coleman said following OU’s second victory in the championship series.
She noted that since Oklahoma did suffer some losses this year, the public began to comment on this Sooner squad that appeared a step behind some of the other recent teams.
“As we went on, if we lost one game, two games, lost to Texas, everyone had an opinion about us. It was frustrating just to see everyone on Twitter, TikTok hoping anybody else but us.”
Ultimately, though, that wouldn’t be the case, as Oklahoma battled back to beat Florida to advance to the championship series and then dispatched of bitter rival Texas pretty quickly.
“We’ll… That didn’t happen,” added Jayda Coleman. “So… We’re blessed.”
She wasn’t the only Sooner to comment on just how tough of a grind this season was. Head coach Patty Gasso had similar things to say after the game herself.
“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. It’s heavy. It’s just I don’t know how to explain how heavy. 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.”
Despite all that was going against them this time around, Oklahoma still found a way to weather the storm and be the last ones standing in Oklahoma City.
“It’s been exhausting. These players are exhausted, but they keep going,” said Gasso. “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.”
The post Jayda Coleman describes how outside noise impacted Oklahoma during the season appeared first on On3.