The eight-time National Champion is taking on a new challenge with Team USA along with her current role at Oklahoma.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Patty Gasso’s appointment to lead USA Softball has been a dream of the legendary Oklahoma coach for a long time.
“I was able to attend the first USA Olympic Games in Atlanta and I was just a very young coach at OU,” Gasso said at her USA Softball introductory press conference on Tuesday. “And I watched that … but never in a million years would I tell you that I thought that I would be sitting here right now.
“… ‘Wow’ moment right here right now. … This moment is truly special in my career and it feels like a dream come true. … There’s a lot of responsibly to that and I honor all the coaches of the past and watched their work from afar.”
Last week, USA Softball announced Gasso would lead the team from now through the 2028 Olympics.
While the Olympiad will be hosted in Los Angeles, the softball portion of the game has been proposed to be held in Oklahoma City, something that will become official when Los Angeles’ city council votes to approve moving both softball and kayaking to OKC.
And while it’s fitting that the head of college softball’s current dynasty, one that has had so much success both in Oklahoma City and 23 miles south of Devon Park, USA Softball CEO Craig Cress said there was one thing in particular that stood out about Gasso during the interview process.
“Our Athletes Advisory Committee … they put together a list of potential candidates that they wanted us to talk to … And we reached out and had extensive interviews with several of them,” Cress said. “… Coach Gasso did an amazing job of making me believe that she really wanted to do this. And I think that’s what it came down to, besides her amazing track record, it’s just the enthusiasm and the passion she has to do this.”
Gasso’s rise in coaching hasn’t just occurred over the last four years, though she’s certainly taken her program to new heights in that time, but the stars hadn’t quite aligned prior to now for her to take the helm of the Red, White and Blue.
“I just always kind of stayed in the background until I thought it might be the right time for me,” Gasso said. “… I’ve had kids who were young at that time and I just felt that it was a really hard then to leave them.
“… But they’re grown and I’ve got grandkids. It’s time. It’s time. It’s in Oklahoma City.”
Throughout her tenure at Oklahoma, Gasso has coached some of the sport’s biggest stars.
But now she’ll be tasked with bringing together a team in a way she’s never had to before.
“I know everyone is fighting in America to be one of 15,” she said. “And the process is going to be tough but it’s going to be fair. The culture is going to be elite and if the culture is not elite then changes are going to be made.”
Gasso said the training for Team USA will take place mostly at Devon Park in Oklahoma City and at Love’s Field and Marita Hynes Field in Norman.
There will be multiple events in the years leading up to the Olympics, but the process will truly ramp up in 2027.
Gasso said she wants to settle on her team earlier than usual to give the proper time for the group to gel together, which will coincide with her duties at Oklahoma.
“We’ve talked to Joe (Castiglione),” Gasso said. “We’re going to try to schedule OU together with USA Softball and go to a lot of tournaments together, have them play in our tournaments at home. And if there’s any feeling like I need to step away, I know that I can do that when I need to do that.
“I have great assistant coaches that are probably waiting for me to retire. They’re that good. They’re that good. So I have no nervousness about this. But I really have to — I’m going to commit to both. But if I feel like USA Softball needs me, I will be there. And that’s been talked about extensively with both sides.”
If it comes to that, it will be well into the future for Gasso.
For now, she’s focused on taking her 2025 Sooners back to the mountaintop while also starting the process of assembling an All-Star coaching staff for Team USA.
Gasso has authored some incredible moments at Devon Park throughout her career, but bringing back a gold medal on the field that she’s made her second home would undoubtedly be her greatest professional achievement, she said.
“Being chosen for this role is the highest honor a coach could ever receive,” Gasso said. “I am both humbled and grateful for the confidence that USA Softball has in me.
“… The idea … for Oklahoma City to be hosting two Olympic events is off the charts and that alone gives me goosebumps. … It is going to change the city and hopefully change the state and ultimately change the way USA Softball is looked at when we bring home that gold medal.”