A Women's College World Series without Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso seems almost unimaginable at this point. After all, the Sooners have been there for each of the past nine years the NCAA Softball Championship has been held.
And this year, Gasso isn't the only head coach with an OU connection leading a WCWS team in Oklahoma City. Florida head coach Tim Walton and Melyssa Lombardi of Oregon both have ties back to Gasso and Oklahoma.
Patty Gasso's OU coaching tree includes two leading teams in WCWS
Walton, a former Oklahoma baseball pitcher who played in the mid-1990s and was a member of the Sooners' 1994 national championship team, began his coaching career as an OU assistant under Gasso for four season in 1999-2002. He got his first head-coaching job at Wichita State, where he compiled a 123-64 record over three seasons.
In 2003, Walton was named head coach at Florida and is now in his 20th season leading the Gators' softball program. Florida is making its 19th straight NCAA postseason appearance and 13th trip to the Women's College World Series. The Gators won back-to-back national championships in 2014-15 and have been national runner-up three times, including in 2017 when the Sooners were national champions.
Walton passed the 1,000 barrier this season in wins at Florida with 1,028 and an .802 winning percentage. His record, though, in games against his former head coach at Oklahoma is 4-6, including a pair of wins and series victory over the Sooners this season.
Lombardi was a catcher in Gasso's first two seasons at Oklahoma in 1995-96 and joined the Sooner coaching staff in 1997 as a student assistant. She remained on staff for another 21 seasons, first as an assistant and later as assistant head coach. The Sooners won four of their eight national championships during Lombardi's time on the coaching staff.
The former OU assistant got her opportunity to become a head coach when Oregon came calling in 2019. Lombardi has a 235-114 record in seven seasons, including five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
In her only matchup with her alma mater and former mentor, Lombardi's Oregon team was swept by the Sooners in the Super Regional last season.
In addition to Walton and Lombardi, three other head coaches in NCAA Division I softball got their coaching start under the legendary Oklahoma head coach: Courtney Deifel of Arkansas (whose hitting coach is DJ Gasso, Patty's son), Samantha Rickets at Mississippi State and Kristin Vesely at Houston. JT Gasso, brother of DJ, is the hitting instructor and associate head coach at Oklahoma.
Gasso's record of success speaks loudly -- 1,565 wins in 31 seasons as Oklahoma softball coach, third most all-time and first among active coaches.
The Hall of Fame coach already has a bronze statue in her honor -- something that is typically reserved for retired head coaches -- outside of the state-of-the-art, 2-year-old Love's Field. Gasso has eight national championships to her credit, tied with legendary former Arizona coach Mike Candrea for the most of any coach in college softball, and this year has taken her Sooner team to its 18th appearance in the Women's College World Series in the past 25 seasons.
If Gasso keeps on doing what she's doing, including her annual June trip with her team up the interstate to Oklahoma City, they'll be dedicating another lifelike statue of the Oklahoma head coach outside Devon Park at some point in the future. That has been the Sooners' home away from home the past two decades.
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