Gajewski Shows Combination of Understanding, Pride, and Passion with Facility
STILLWATER – Oklahoma State softball head coach Kenny Gajewski met with the media on Monday, a weekend delayed for his preseason media day thanks to Mother Nature and last week’s ice storm, but as Gajewski said at 50, he is more in tune to controlling those things he can control and not what he can’t. Gajewski showed some awareness of continuing to push for his building powerhouse softball program and also know that modern day college athletics commands certain programs live at the top of the food chain.
“We know where we are in line and we’re close,” Gajewski said during a portion of his over one hour with the media. This coming from the coach that last year in the process on another Women’s College World Series season saw the new diamond down the street for baseball and nearly made a proclamation for his team to get one quickly.
“I’m very aware that football needs improvements, I realize that football has to be good for us to be good,” Gajewski said realizing the needs financially and with the conference realignment a nearly constant threat. “That’s huge. We need them to do what they just did (12-2 and bowl win over Notre Dame) over and over again. In recruiting, it is huge. We need Coach Boynton to get through everything that he is going through. We need more experiences like we did on Saturday (Bedlam hoops win) here, it’s recruiting. Track needs an indoor and wrestling needs lots of improvements, so I’m very aware of all this.”
The extremely enthusiastic coach, a former University of Oklahoma baseball player that played in the College World Series, a former college groundskeeper himself, and now the pied piper of a softball program that is rocking the sport and threatening the rival school that he graduated from; Gajewski wants his facility to keep up with his girl’s prowess, which has been off the charts the last couple of seasons.
“It’s not enough. We need to keep jumping in,” he said of how he feels with a program that is 102-34 over the past three seasons and top-five ranked for this spring. “A new stadium is coming. Everybody knows that, so I’m not beating a dead horse. We need more seats. That is a major, major issue when I have people come tell me, ‘We’d really like to watch you play but we can’t get seats.”
More seats and more of everything is needed and deserved. Like I wrote, Gajewski had a better view everyday of O’Brate Stadium going up than the baseball staff did. He could see it while his team practiced.
“I’m committed to finding the right donor or donors to come in here and make these girls the very best experience like the O’Brates have over at the baseball field,” Gajewski said and he also added a firm has been solicited for a master plan. “That’s the standard, so there is no reason that our kids shouldn’t have the exact same thing.”
In the meantime, the Cowgirls, who open the season in Tempe, Ariz. on Thursday night with No. 21 Arizona State, are seeing improvements to Cowgirl Stadium. There is now a new outfield porch in right similar to the one in left. There is a new outfield fence and a new cutting edge turf in the outfield with a rebuilt hard dirt infield. The new turf is 2-30 degrees cooler than the conventional turf often used for athletic surfaces and it has been built to neuter the bounce so that the ball bounces more like normal grass.
“We won’t have anymore rainouts. We’ll be able to practice everyday on our field,” Gajewski said with a smile. “The fence won’t fall over and we won’t have wall pads that fall off our fence when we are playing the number one team in the country and we’re beating them. You know wall pads are falling off and we’re having to stop a game. That’s all stuff that was crazy.
“The fence is going to look awesome,” he continued. “The field is going to be turf and we’ll have a hard dirt infield, so there will be a learning curve. It’ll give our grounds crew, which is the best in the country a chance to take care of a field that they know is built right.”
Gajewski started bragging. He said the way they are branding the stadium it will be the best branded facility on campus.
You just can’t get Kenny Gajewski not to be excited about his product. It seems he doesn’t understand the theory of undersell and over produce. That is okay with his softball team. I think they will play to have his back. Now, for his stadium, I would advise being happy, but like he said, keep jumping in. Keep looking for that donor or donors. That’s how you get that stadium and I agree with him. His players, his program, they deserve it.