An extreme rarity in college softball, the Oklahoma Sooners are not competing in the Women's College World Series, but the eight teams there are still chasing what head coach Patty Gasso built at OU.
Samatha Ricketts' Mississippi State Bulldogs were responsible for ending the No. 3 national seed Sooners' nine-year run of winning a Super Regional and making the WCWS down the road in Oklahoma City. As a former OU player who took down her alma mater as a head coach in a massive upset, Ricketts knows better than anyone where OU still stands in college softball despite the one-year absence.
Samantha Ricketts points out Sooners are the still the standard in college softball
“They’re the standard of college softball,” Ricketts said. “What Coach Gasso has built cannot be denied -- what this program is and what she’s done. I know, for myself and the relationship to the program, I am so thankful for her and her guidance. I would not be in this seat and in this moment without Patty Gasso.”
Ricketts, a first baseman, was one of Gasso's first stars as an OU player in 2006-09. She was a two-time Second-Team All-American, and when she graduated in 2009, she held the program records for career home runs and runs batted in. Both marks have since been shattered, though, as Gasso has produced even more talent year after year.
After playing, Ricketts started her coaching career as a graduate assistant under Gasso at OU for three years in 2009-11. Those seven years learning under Gasso as a player and coach ultimately propelled Ricketts to be one of the best young coaches in college softball today.
Ricketts bounced around as an assistant before taking over Mississippi State in 2020 and promptly went 25-3 before her first year in charge was cut short because of COVID. She then led Mississippi State to its first regional title and Super Regional appearance in 2022. Then after upsetting her old mentor and program at a place she once called home, Ricketts now has the Bulldogs in the WCWS for the first time ever after going 43-19.
Read more: Oklahoma's rare WCWS absence doesn't mean a lack of Sooner presence
It's evident Mississippi State wouldn't be in the Women's College World Series without Gasso's legacy. And that doesn't just go for the Bulldogs. Arkansas is also competing in its first WCWS. Razorbacks head coach Courtney Deifel was a graduate assistant under Gasso for two years and her right-hand man, hitting coach DJ Gasso, wasn't just a graduate manager for Gasso for two years, but is also her son.
As these coaches left Gasso to eventually lead programs to the WCWS for the time, she's gotten the Sooners there 18 times, including eight national titles, during her 31 years leading the premier program of college softball this century.
Even though Gasso doesn't have a team competing in the WCWS right now, all those teams are still chasing the Sooners, and some programs even needed Gasso herself to even get in the race.
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