An all-too brief glimpse of what they could be
tra. After that, everything happened really quickly. I’m honestly still in shock.”
Their season ended Thursday with a practice.
“I was pacing around the facility about an hour before practice,” Cutler said. “I was thinking, ‘This could be the last normal for a while.’ Marybeth Olson, she is one of the goofiest, funniest people on the team. I said, ‘Hey, we need to talk to the team.’ ”
They did. This could be the last normal thing for a while, they told them. Let’s have fun. And they did.
“That was one of the most fun practices,” Cutler said. Everybody was locked in playing and having fun.”
Then they all went home.
The turnaround started last July when UConn hired Valentino, who had been an assistant at Duke, after the team went
21-29 last year.
“I tried to be open and honest with the team,” Valentino said. “I told them, ‘You’re going to work the hardest you ever worked. Things are going to be different. I ask you to keep an open mind, be coachable and trust the process.’ ”
The fall season went OK. Then there was a hiatus for winter break. Players were expected to come back in January in shape.
They practiced for a week, then there was a running test on
Jan. 22. Players had to run 16 110-yard sprints, what the coaches call “half-gassers,” in a certain amount of time.
Fifteen of the 21 players failed the test.
“We felt as a staff we worked so hard to instill a level of expectation in the fall,” Valentino said. “For them to come back and not prove they were ready to go, it was frustrating. It was two weeks away from opening day.
“I wouldn’t categorize myself as a so-called yeller, as a coach. I’m intense but I’m very much a players’ coach. I would say that day I raised my voice.
“So we took away softball for a week. We focused on acts of gratitude. How much of an opportunity it is to wear ‘UConn softball’ across your chest. We wrote thank you cards to alumni support staff, we cleaned facilities. We thought about what it means to be a UConn softball player and why we’re here.”
At first the players were panicked. They weren’t practicing two weeks before the season started? They did extra conditioning. The captains held practices. They polished the trophies. They wrote the letters.
“I was in disbelief, but I trusted her,” said Cutler, who was a captain. “Some people were freaking out to me. I said, ‘You’ve been playing softball your whole life. I believe Coach has our best interests in mind.’ That week was eye-opening. It was such a turning point.”
They came back and practiced again, more united. The Huskies won their first game, lost their next two, then dug deep to beat Boston College, 3-2, in eight innings and then Florida Gulf Coast, 7-3.
“We finally had a glimpse of how good we could be,” senior outfielder Ashlee Dahman said. “We found that extra motivation, going into extra innings, we could pull out those games.
“It’s a credit to the coaches for changing the culture but also a credit to the team. We said, ‘This is who we want to be.’ ”
Dahman is going into the Army this summer. This was her final year as a UConn softball player.
Cutler had already applied to go to graduate school and is thinking about playing next year, as the NCAA is giving players another year of eligibility.
“I would probably regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t come back,” she said. “I’m going to take more time to think about it but there’s a very strong likelihood I’ll be back.”