Carlson: OSU coach Kenny Gajewski's tears remind us how difficult it can be to make WCWS
Jenni CarlsonSTILLWATER ― As Kenny Gajewski watched his Oklahoma State softball team move within one out of another trip to the Women’s College World Series, as Cowgirl fans rose to their feet and chants of “O-K-C!” echoed around Cowgirl Stadium, he began to cry.
Tears streamed down his cheeks.
He wiped them away as they dropped below his dark-tinted sunglasses, but for several minutes, nothing stopped them.
“I don’t know what came over me,” he said after the game.
The Cowgirl coach is admittedly emotional, tearing up regularly, often when talking about his players and their successes. No doubt the emotions as OSU neared a super-regional sweep of Oregon on Friday night were, in part, tears of joy.
But they were also tears of release.
These past 12 months have not been easy for Gajewski.
“It’s probably been the hardest year on me personally,” he said.
Even as the Cowgirls prepare for their fourth consecutive WCWS ― only OU has a longer streak of WCWS appearances ― Gajewski’s tears remind us that success like this isn’t always easy. The Cowgirls made lots of wins look easy this season, none more so than their super-regional victories, but peek behind the curtain, and you’ll see struggles.
Gajewski was dealing with some of the biggest ones of his career a year ago. Even though the Cowgirls were among the best teams in the country, hitting and scoring became more of a struggle as the season went on. The staff sought answers and considered tweaks, but hitting coach Jeff Cottrill wanted to stay the course.
He had been on the Cowgirl staff since Gajewski became the head coach at OSU. They were close. Ditto for their families. But long before the season was over, Gajewski knew he had to make a change.
Cottrill ultimately left for Missouri.
That prompted his daughter, Julia, a Cowgirl catcher and someone Gajewski had seen grown up, to transfer to Texas A&M.
“We made some tough changes this last year,” Gajewski said. “It was really hard.”
He paused.
“I don’t know,” he said finally. “It just kind of wears on you.”
Gajewski promoted Whitney Cloer to be the Cowgirls’ hitting coach, and the move has been a smashing success. Quite literally. The team’s batting average has risen from .291 to .327. It has more runs batted in (348) right now than it had all of last season (282).
“Those things are all only done to help our kids,” Gajewski said of staff changes.
More:Carlson: How Oklahoma State softball turned around its season, punched WCWS ticket
Still …
“I feel like I’ve shouldered that some, and it’s just been hard.”
Then, of course, came the Cowgirls' late-season slide.
After starting this year 39-3, the Cowgirls lost five in a row, then rallied a bit, then lost five more in a row. All told, they only won two of their last 13 games before the start of the NCAA Tournament.
Gajewski struggled to figure out how to break his team out of its slump. What buttons needed pushing? He’s admitted several times that this is the first time he’s ever been through this situation: a super-elite team suddenly losing its ability to win ballgames.
He wanted to make it better.
He felt like he was unable to do so.
Some outside the program felt the same way, too, and they let their frustrations be known.
“It’s the first year I felt criticism in my time here,” Gajewski said.
He chuckled.
“That’s been a new experience. I’m usually a guy that people like, so I had to deal with that.”
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Now, of course, those late-season struggles for Gajewski and his Cowgirls seem long ago and far away. They steamrolled through regionals and super regionals. They will enter the WCWS as arguably the hottest team in softball. They are hitting on all cylinders, hitting, pitching and fielding.
Quite honestly, seeing his team playing so unbelievably well might have been the thing that brought Gajewski to tears Friday night.
“I just felt this rush of emotion as I was watching Kelly out there, and I’ve known what she’s been going through,” he said of Maxwell, the All-American who has struggled with a finger blister on her throwing hand all season and who was the losing pitcher in four of the 11 losses late in the season.
“I know what Kiley feels like after we feel like she got completely snubbed in the Big 12 awards.”
Naomi leads the league with 64 RBI but was neither a first- nor second-team all-Big 12 selection.
“And it was just like, ‘OK, we’re about to show you, and we’re going to do it as a group, and we’re going to rally behind her and behind her, and we’re going to show you guys what this is all about,’” Gajewski said.
In that moment, the joy overwhelmed Gajewski and the tears flowed.
All of that reminded him of the day he was hired by then-OSU athletic director Mike Holder. Back then, the Cowgirls were a long way from getting to the WCWS in consecutive years, much less making four of them in a row. Gajewski wasn’t thinking about such things then, and neither was Holder.
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“I just want you to give these kids their best four years of their entire life,” Gajewski remembers Holder telling him.
That isn’t always easy. It sure wasn’t for Gajewski during this past year. Difficult changes had to be made, and tough stretches had to be endured, but still, Gajewski has done his best to fulfill that directive.
“It’s not perfect always,” he admitted, “but we try to do that.”
Even if it brings you to tears in the dugout.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
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Thursday's WCWS games
At USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium (all games on ESPN):
Game 1: Alabama vs. Tennessee, 11 a.m.
Game 2: Oklahoma vs. Stanford, 1:30 p.m.
Game 3: Oklahoma State vs. Florida State, 6 p.m.
Game 4: Washington vs. Utah, 8:30 p.m.