Alo is slugging away to history

Locked in… no two words better describe the mindset of the Oklahoma Sooner softball team and its talented slugger Jocelyn

Alo. As the Sooners head towards the postseason, Alo has put together a phenomenal season forged in hard work and commitment even through the most challenging of times.

“There is a new Jocelyn Alo,” Sooner head coach Patty Gasso said. “Her body is strong, she looks great, she is taking better care of her health. She has been locked in and on a mission. This is the best I’ve ever seen her and she’s not going to stop.”

Not many would understand the need for anything to be new for the talented Sooner slugger based on her numbers and production in previous seasons. Alo tied the Sooner single-season home run mark with 30 home runs during her freshman season and has continued to be one of the most feared hitters in college softball. Her sophomore season was filled with challenges and COVID-19 cut the season short during what would have been her junior season.

Despite struggles during the shortened season in 2020, Alo refocused during the latter stages of quarantine and has come back better than ever.

“Last year was tough,” Alo confessed. “I felt like I didn’t end the season like I wanted. And honestly, during quarantine, I had no motivation to do anything. But once we started getting closer to coming back, I felt like it was time to lock in. Being back with the team really made me more motivated because seeing them over Zoom I was not motivated at all. I needed to be around them.”

This season, Alo has already moved up to No. 2 on the career home run list for Sooner softball. She currently sits with the best career batting average in Sooner softball history and is in the Top 10 in career RBIs. But the Hawaii native made an impact on the sports world well before she even decided to make softball her full-time sport.

In high school, the multi-sport commitment was anything but typical. While some student athletes might compete in basketball or even track and field, Alo made her presence felt on the mat. In fact, her prep accomplishments include a Hawaii High School Athletic Association wrestling title at 184 pounds as a Kahuku (Hawaii) sophomore in 2015. You read that correctly, one of the greatest home run hitters in college softball history was a high school wrestler who took home the state championship.

SLUG

“My dad was a wrestler and he wanted me to wrestle to learn the mental toughness,” Alo said. “When you mess up it’s on yourself. You must be consistent with your emotions and not get too high or too low. But I just knew I had to focus on softball to get a degree and have a chance to play at the next level.”

After winning the wrestling state championship, Alo had a singular focus on softball for the remainder of her high school career. After transferring to Campbell High School, she took home consecutive state titles in softball and was named the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Position Player of the Year to end her high school career.

Attempts to pitch around Alo started well before she wore crimson and cream. During her senior year state tournament, Alo walked in 13 of her 17 plate appearances. Like her time with the Sabers, opposing pitchers have learned to be far more selective when pitching to Alo, who has the power to send one out whenever she swings a bat.

“High school’s very different, they would just walk me and walk me and walk me,” she said. “Pitchers this year, they have film on you and know what you do and what your tendencies are. Freshman year, you come in and they don’t know who you are, they don’t know what you can do. For me it was just about adjusting to that, adjusting to how pitchers were pitching to me. It’s definitely different from being walked all the time.”

Her love for softball has been in place from an incredibly young age. While her father had wanted Alo to compete as a wrestler, Alo always had visions of playing on the diamond. She started preparing for her place in the softball world when she was just 3 years old.

38 | April 2021

“I started tee ball at 4 years old and actually what really got me into tee ball was that I wasn’t old enough to play when I was 3 and I was watching my sister play and I got jealous,” Alo remembered. “So, my dad would take me to the park and we’d hit 500 balls pick them up and hit 500 more balls. The dedication that young was really something fun because it was fun to me.”

With her high school career in the rearview, Alo seemed destined to leave Hawaii and continue her softball career in the Pac 12. But things changed.

“What’s crazy is I was actually committed to Cal my freshman year of high school,” Alo said. “As my years progressed, I just had a change of heart and my heart wasn’t with Berkley.”

Sooner hitting coach JT Gasso had started to hear the buzz that the Hawaiian slugger might be available, so he did his research and decided that Alo needed to be a Sooner.

“She was committed to Cal for a long time, and it was one of those things where you get a call that she is looking,” JT said. “The first thing I did was go to YouTube and put in Jocelyn Alo and the first thing that came up was her state championship wrestling video where she separated her opponents’ shoulder to win the State Championship and in my mind, I was sold. We had to get this girl. It was by chance that it happened, and it has ended up working out and everyone is happy that it did.”

In a wild twist of fate, Alo became a Sooner and she was willing to do whatever it took to get to Norman.

“I de-committed from Cal and, right before my signing, Oklahoma had something open up,” Alo said. “But when I committed, I did so without a scholarship. My parents were going to have to pay for everything my freshman year, but things ended up working out and I got myself a scholarship and the rest has been history.”

Family has always been the most important thing to Alo and the strength of the Alo family bond is magnified in the sacrifice her family was willing to make to ensure she could play at Oklahoma. Her family does everything they can to be there every step of the way. While the trips might be long and tiring, her father Levi and mother Andrea try to make every single game they can, and that means the world to her.

“Girls in Oklahoma get to see their family all the time and I don’t … so when I do get to see them, I just want to enjoy every single minute even if it’s just me pointing to them when I’m on second base,” she said. “My family is very important to me and I wouldn’t be here without them.”

The personal disappointment of her sophomore season and the obvious frustration of losing a season to a global pandemic are in the rearview. She has charged into her “super junior” campaign as focused and prepared as she has been since she stepped on campus.

“She’s waited for this. She would tell you she’s been hot and cold through the time she’s been here,” Patty Gasso said. “Her freshman year she set a record and the attitude was now I’ve got to hit 40 my sophomore year and 50 my junior year. She figured out that’s not the way to look at it. She has grown up and matured quite a bit. She’s on a whole other mission here this season.”

JT Gasso has seen a renewed commitment at the plate.

“What we’ve seen is how smart she is and how into the game she truly is... she’s next level. It’s been fun,” he said. “It’s fun to hear the conversations about the game and who they are facing and what they are going to do. She’s speaking her things into existence where she sees what she misses in one at-bat and be right on cue with her next at-bat before it happens. The maturity factor is there, and it’s been fun to see her grow.”

Despite the frustration of not having softball during quarantine, Alo made a commitment to change her body and her approach during her time away from softball. Under the watchful eye of Sooner softball strength coach Dane Sommers, Alo recommitted herself in the weight room and took her preparations seriously.

“He made me want to up my game more in the weight room,” Alo said of Sommers’ impact. “I lost a bit of weight… 20 pounds in quarantine… and I just changed my eating habits. I mean I still need my Chick-Fil-a; I still get that, but I just eat a lot better, a lot smarter… I’m just super locked into what I’m doing and what I want to do.”

Alo also found herself motivated by the roster that Patty Gasso put together for 2021. With a standout freshman class entering the competition, Alo was not about to lose her spot.

“Seeing the level of competition go up, honestly, I knew we had a good freshman class coming in and, to be honest, I wasn’t going to let a freshman or anyone take my spot,” Alo said. “That motivated me as well. I feel like I’ve upped my game and I’m super locked into what I’m doing. I wanted to be locked in even more than I’ve ever been, and I feel like that’s where I am.”

“Jocy has been in a wonderful place,” Patty Gasso added. “Probably the most prepared and in shape I’ve seen her since she stepped on campus. She’s on a mission and I feel that. She’s been a good leader, putting in all the extra work. She’s in good health. She looks strong, feels good physically so I’m excited for her the rest of the season.”

Jocelyn Alo has found a whole different level for her game this season. The expectations have always been high for the slugger, and sometimes the weight of those expectations can be overwhelming. But Alo has renewed her focus on being the best teammate, leader and overall contributor that she can be.

“This whole lineup is locked in top to bottom. Our bench is loaded as well. It’s just crazy to see the amount of talent we have on this team,” Alo said. “Coach Gasso always says that iron sharpens iron and I truly believe this team is full of iron.”

The focus will always be on Alo, the prodigious home runs, the jaw-dropping power she puts up, the overall pursuit of history, but in the end, only one thing matters to Alo. One thing that has proven to be elusive during her first three seasons in Norman. Alo wants a National title. And while the talk and focus might be on the Hawaiian-born slugger, she knows that it is a total team effort to take home a National Championship.

“I want to win a National Championship and I need my team to do that… it can’t just be on me.” – BSM