The Beginning of a Dynasty

The Beginning of a Dynasty

BY: Chris Plank

The 2000 Oklahoma softball team was expected to just enjoy the ride. In a lot of ways, they were just supposed to be happy to be a part of it all. When all was said and done, the 2000 Sooner Softball team was more than just along for the ride. They drove the bus.

Over the span of five days in Oklahoma City, Patty Gasso led an unlikely band of underdogs to victory and changed the trajectory of an entire sport, imploding a West Coast domination in college softball.

The 2000 National Championship changed everything and as the university celebrates the 20th anniversary, we look back at the lessons, relationships and memories that still last to this day.

JUST HAPPY TO BE THERE?

College softball was a West Coast dominated sport. The Pac- 10 had absolutely owned the world of collegiate softball from the inception of the sport in college athletics, led by the dominance of UCLA and Arizona. From 1982 to 1999, either the Bruins or the Wildcats took home the national title a combined 14 times, including a streak of 10 consecutive titles from 1988 to 1997. Only twice since 1982 had a program east of Tucson, Ariz. won a National Championship.

The Sooners changed that in 2000 but there were not a lot of believers when the Sooners showed up in Oklahoma City.

“The feel I got for OU was one of ‘Hey, good for you, making the World Series.’ If you could just win one game, that would be great. If you don’t, that is OK you just made it. Good luck and no matter what happens we’re proud of you... and honestly that just fired me up,” Patty Gasso said as she looked back on the mentality around the sport. “People did not know what kind of team we were dealing with. This was all our first opportunities to go to the World Series and sometimes ignorance is bliss. We just went to play.”

Gasso was making her first ever appearance in the Women’s College World Series, the first of what is now a growing number for Sooner softball. The 2000 team helped set the foundation for what Sooner softball is today.

“Our final record was outstanding...66-8,” Gasso said. “These guys stood up to everybody. They were not intimidated. If anything, they were more motivated to say ‘you have no idea who we are or what we are about.’ When they got on the field, they just wanted to play. They were all so influential in our wins... all of them.”

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

With the dominating perception that college softball was mostly a West Coast sport, the 2000 National Champions helped break the mold. On its path towards the first National Championship, the Sooners faced three Pac-10 teams. Six of the Sooners regular contributors were Oklahomans, including standout pitcher Jennifer Stewart. The Sooners were out to prove it was more than just where you were from that made you great.

The team drew some motivation from a unique source. During a team outing prior to the start of the World Series, the team watched “Gladiator,” starring Russel Crowe. The Academy Award winning film was not only making its mark on the box office. It also made a mark on the softball team.

“Most of us were from Oklahoma and playing in our home state. It was pretty powerful for us because of what was usually there, the Pac 10,” Stewart said. “I remember we went and saw “Gladiator” the movie and I think that was basically us. Just get in the ring and fight for our lives. The first game we were behind against Cal and once we came back and won that game you had that feeling that no one was going to stop us. Our first game, first time in the world series and we won, and we felt unstoppable… we weren’t going to take no.”

The Sooner softball team took on the mindset of Crowe’s Maximus, almost brazenly asking ‘are you not entertained’ as they laid waste to the West Coast softball empire.

“That was it... we were going into an arena and we were facing deadly competition so in a lot of ways you’re fighting for your lives,” Gasso said. “That was the mentality. They were fighters who loved to play.”

THE BIG PLAY MENTALITY

The march towards a National Championship was not easy for the Sooners, but they found confidence in their routine-oriented approach.

“We were all about routines,” standout catcher Ashli Barrett remembered. “The bus driver went the long way the first day, so we went the long way every day after that.”

With Barrett anchoring the battery behind the plate, Jennifer Stewart embarked on a legendary performance in the circle that would eventually lead to the Oklahoman to be named the Women’s College World Series Most Outstanding Player. Stewart’s leadership in the circle was being matched in the field and at the plate.

Christy Ring laced a two-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning against Cal to secure the first win for the Sooners. In game two, the Sooners powered past standout Southern Miss pitcher and 50- game winner Courtney Blades, launching three home runs to advance to a showdown with Arizona. The Sooners knew the path to a championship would go through either the Bruins or Wildcats, teams that the Sooners were a combined 1-12 against during Gasso’s first four seasons.

Stewart pitched a gem against Arizona and blanked the powerful Wildcat lineup in a complete game, six-hit shutout.

“My best memory was beating Arizona because I got drilled by them early in the season,” Stewart recalled. “When coach gave me the ball, I was just hoping to make my team proud and overcome it. They drilled me and nearly run ruled us but we ended up shutting them out in the World Series.

“Winning the World Series was amazing but for me never being recruited by a West Coast team, it was like shoving it in their face. We are from Oklahoma. We are the University of Oklahoma and we just whipped you.”

The stage was set for a championship showdown with the UCLA Bruins.

THE GAME IS FOREVER CHANGED

The Sooners played with a chip on their shoulder for the entire season, always viewed as a ‘nice’ story. They now had a chance to prove they were more.

“We respected Arizona and UCLA beyond imagination because we were always trying to be like them,” Gasso said. “As a coach, I felt like I was going up against royalty. At the same time, I feel like this team deserved respect at the same level and I don’t know if we felt like we were getting it and maybe that fired them up a little more.”

The big plays started early in the championship game against UCLA when Christy Ring caught a line drive in left field and proceeded to throw a laser to first base to double off the talented and speedster Natasha Whatley.

“I still think about that play,” Ring said looking back on the play that seemed to set the tone. “I was so young and so many people were watching. I was extremely nervous, but it was surreal. It was amazing to play in front of that crowd. Coach Gasso was telling us that we were David and they are Goliath. Our team was so close and worked together so well and that helped us in the end.”

Oklahoma scored all of its runs in the third inning when centerfielder Erin Evans led off with a single to left field and was driven-in by first baseman Lisa Carey’s home run to the left field bleachers.

“I called so much during this world series... hit and runs with runners at second, you name it, we did it,” Gasso said. “Lisa Carey hits a bomb and bunts in the next at bat. We called picks... we called everything. My attitude was we just had to go for it. Any time I called upon these guys to do something, they would always do it and do it right.”

Perhaps no moment in the entire season embodied the “Gladiator” mindset of this team better than what happened in the top of the sixth inning. As Lakisha Washington squared to bunt a pitch, it hit her in the face. The game was delayed 20 minutes as trainers tended to the injured Washington.

“They tape her up... there is blood all over her uniform. It was truly a gladiator scene,” Gasso said. “Blood is dripping down her face and she stayed in the game… and then they try to pick her off on the first pitch after all that and that fired me up. So, on the next pitch we send her, and she steals second.”

“I remember thinking, is she serious and then just saying, ‘Ok I gotta go,’” Washington recalled.

The incredible pitching by Stewart, the timely hitting of Barrett and Carey, the defense of Ring and the toughness of Washington helped to set the Sooners up for a championship celebration.

But the final out of the 2000 National Championship would be a story all its own.

As the Bruins brought the tying run to the plate, the game ended in incredibly unique fashion.

“At that time UCLA and the Pac-10 were notorious for taking extra bases,” said Jennifer Rocha, current Sooner pitching coach who was a grad assistant at the time.

She noticed Crissy Buck trying to gain an advantage.

“The violation rule was in effect and they got caught. I remember knowing that and talking about it leading up to the game and then when we ended the game on that it was unbelievable,” Rocha remembered.

Buck was called out for leaving second base early and the celebration was on. The Oklahoma Sooners had won the National Championship.

“I was screaming at the umpire behind the plate,” Catcher Ashli Barrett said.

For standout shortstop Kelli Braitsch, it was sweet redemption.

“I had made an error on a double play on the play before, so we huddled up and regrouped,” Braitsch said. “She (Buck) had been leading off second and stayed there for a second. Jenn had been in the circle and as she made an attempt to go back to the bag she took off to third and that is why the final out is not really recorded, the most awkward ending to a title game.”

“My back was to everything, so I had no idea a celebration going on behind us,” Stewart recalled.

“I was jumping in the outfield wondering, ‘did we win?’” Ring recalled. “We were all jumping and had no idea.”

Christy Ring

EVERLASTING FRIENDSHIPS

“I remember I took my video camera everywhere and I remember taping all the girls, constantly dancing trying to entertain everyone,” Ring said. “Winning the World Series is the highlight of my life so far. It was a memory you will never forget. You still feel that same excitement when you see it... it’s like it was yesterday.”

The 2000 National Championship was a first for a women’s program at the University of Oklahoma. It also gave the Sooners its first national title since the baseball team won in 1994, an accomplishment made even more special since it was secured by a roster loaded with homegrown Oklahoma talent.

“I always say my favorite memory was being on the upper field and we had snaked down by the flowers close to the main field and, as we’re going down the berm, we can hear something,” Braitsch recalled. “We had no idea what they were chanting. And then we realized the entire stadium was chanting OU... it was a moment where we were shocked. Sure, it was our backyard, but I never would have thought they would come together, that many people for us. I get chills thinking about it. That was my favorite memory outside of winning.”

“We enjoyed it more being from Oklahoma,” Barrett recalled. “We grew up sitting on those berms and rolling down that hill as kids, watching those UCLA, Arizona and Long Beach teams. I remember them walking with those metal spikes and thinking man how awesome would it be to wear those spikes and play there one day. Jenn and I walked up the stairs before the Cal game and she turned around and saw some kids sitting and said to me, ‘that used to be us over there.’”

Stewart was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Women’s College World Series, allowing just two earned runs in 26 innings. She was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Braitsch and Carey, laying the foundation of Sooner softball with hard work and dedication. To this day, they stay close and connected.

“Friendship is one of the best things I’ve taken out of this,” Stewart said. “These are some of my best friends to this day. That was Coach making us like a family. It was all about family and the bond that we shared. The experience we went through. It was one of the greatest moments of my life just being able to have that… I just love the memories that we have. We created this together.”

The 2000 win for Oklahoma not only changed the trajectory of the Sooner program but also the sport of College Softball. Since the 2000 National Championship, every Power Five Conference has won at least one National Championship with Oklahoma and Florida winning back-to-back titles during that stretch.

“The win there changed the sport of softball,” Gasso said. “Others around the country said if an Oklahoma team can do it ... we can do it. Investments started going into collegiate softball. Now that is why the crowds are so big because it can happen to anyone anywhere in the country. This team had a lot to do in bringing hope to a sport that might have been dying because it was so owned by the West Coast.”

The win also secured Gasso as the Sooner head coach for years to come. The now Hall of Fame Sooner coach had all but decided she was headed back to the West Coast because it was just not feasible to continue coaching at Oklahoma from a financial perspective.

The win in 2000, as it had in so many ways, changed everything.

“The championship mindset we talk about a lot now, it’s our mantra… it started right here with this group. I just didn’t know what to call it,” Gasso said. “That is how they played. One thing that just warms my heart more than anything is to see that they still get together. I am so proud of what these guys have become. They can thank me, but I’m honored to have led them through this. You would not even imagine what this one game did for this program.

“This was my favorite championship… because it set the standard and the stage. If this did not happen, I do not know if we would be where we are today. How can I not say this was my favorite… it molded our program.”– BSM