As some of you may know I flew back to Oklahoma a couple weeks ago for a family emergency in which my Nephew was involved in a wrestling incident. Unfortunately he did not survive the unsanctioned event and now it is up to the authorities to determine what is next. That being said let's talk softball and remember, what's said in the Poop doesn't necessarily have to stay in the Poop!.
First up, Patty Gasso and staff receive big raises! One thing is for sure with Castiglione, if you win National Championships for the University of Oklahoma he will make sure you get compensated.
OU Board of Regents approve Patty Gasso salary increase to $725k. #Sooners softball has won back-to-back NCAA titles. Made $481k last year.
The university’s Board of Regents approved to extend Gasso’s contract through 2024 with an annual stay bonus of $200,000, bringing Gasso’s gauranteed earnings to $925,000.
The raise comes after the Sooners beat Florida in the 2017 Women’s College World Series championship series in June. Gasso led Oklahoma to national titles in 2000, 2013 and 2016 as well.
Gasso took over the Oklahoma softball program in 1995. She’s led the school to all four of its national championships, all 11 of its WCWS appearances and she’s won 16 conference championships in 23 seasons as the Sooners head coach.
Lombardi went from $109,000 to $185,000
J.T.Gasso went from $83,400 to $125,000
Fall Softball Schedule
TWO-TIME DEFENDING CHAMPS ANNOUNCE FALL SLATE
NORMAN – The two-time defending national champion Oklahoma softball team unveiled its eight-game fall exhibition schedule Tuesday. All eight games will take place at Marita Hynes Field.
The fall schedule starts the weekend of Sept. 29 with the annual Fall Festival Tournament. Oklahoma opens play on Friday, Sept. 29, against Trinity Valley Community College at 4:45 p.m. before facing Temple College at 7 p.m. later that night. OU then plays twice Saturday with games at 4:45 p.m. against Seminole State and 7 p.m. against Northern Oklahoma.
2017 FALL SCHEDULE
Date Time (CT) Opponent
Sept. 29 4:45 p.m. Trinity Valley CC
Sept. 29 7 p.m. Temple College
Sept. 30 4:45 p.m. Seminole State
Sept. 30 7 p.m. Northern Oklahoma
Oct. 18 6 p.m. North Central Texas College
Oct. 29 12/2 p.m. Arkansas
Nov. 3 6 p.m. North Texas
Two and a half weeks later, the fall schedule picks back up when the Sooners take the field on Tuesday, Oct. 18 against North Central Texas College at 6 p.m.
Later in the month, OU hosts Arkansas in a doubleheader that begins at noon on Oct. 29. The teams met twice last year with Oklahoma capturing a 4-2 win during the regular season on April 5 and a 5-3 victory over the Razorbacks in an elimination game during the NCAA Regional on May 20.
Oklahoma then closes out the fall slate on Friday, Nov. 3 when it hosts North Texas at 6 p.m. Ten different Sooners had a hit when OU beat the Mean Green during the regular season, an 8-0, six-inning victory on April 18.
OU is coming off a season in which the Sooners won their second straight national title, third in the last five years and fourth overall. Oklahoma is also the six-time defending Big 12 champion, a run never before seen in the conference, after sweeping the regular season and tournament titles. The Sooners finished the 2017 season with a 61-9 record as they made their 11th appearance at the Women’s College World Series.
The team loses just one player from last year's squad and returns Second-Team All-Americans Caleigh Clifton, Shay Knighten (reigning Big 12 Player of the Year and WCWS Most Outstanding Player) and Paige Parker (three-time Big 12 Pitcher of the Year) in 2018.
In addition to Clifton, Knighten and Parker, returning all-region honorees include senior Nicole Pendley, juniors Falepolima Aviu and Sydney Romero, and freshman Nicole Mendes. Additionally, WCWS All-Tournament Team member Paige Lowary is also back for her senior season.
Along with the 17 returning members, Oklahoma welcomes in five newcomers, including a four-person freshman class and transfer pitcher Parker Conrad from the University of Missouri.
OC Batbusters-Stith
This travel club team will be stacked once again with Division 1 talent from the PAC-12 and Oklahoma.
Returning Oklahoma commits are:
2020 #2 3B Zaida Puni
2020 #16 2B/SS Destiny Noury
2020 #17 SS Tiare Jennings(Fast Riser)
2019 #65 P Alanna Thiede
2019 #83 P Olivia Rains(Fast Riser)
New Oklahoma additions:
2019 #1 C Kinzie Hansen
2020 #9 P/3B Nicole May(Fast Riser)
*Fast Riser means these players had big summers on the PGF circuit and I expect them to rise in their next class rankings. Obviously this team is loaded with Oklahoma commits from the 2020 class and with this class being updated this month it would not surprise me if in the next update Oklahoma has 4 commits in the Top 10 and possibly 3 in the the Top 5.
Random schollie info...
The restrictions of the scholarship limitation in softball (12 scholarships) really tells you how badly these girls coming from California, Texas and elsewhere really want to play for Patty. And how well Patty performs her job from a recruiting perspective.
By state law a girl from California, Texas or any other state that gets a half scholarship must pay out-of-state tuition for the balance of her scholarship. Per the link below the total cost of attendance at OU for out-of-state players is approximately $41,630 and $27,308 for in-state players. That means the player/families must come up with approximately $20,800 for out-of-state and $13,500 for in-state cost not covered by the scholarship.
UT in-state costs are approximately $26,626. So a Texas girl going to OU instead of UT is out an additional $7,500 ($41,630-$26,626/2= $7,502) out of pocket annually for going to OU instead of Texas. That is $30,000 over 4 years just to play for the Sooners. Wow!!!
UCLA in-state costs are approximately $31,900 so the California gals are paying an additional $4,865 annually and $19,460 for 4 years to go to OU.
The above numbers for Texas makes it easy to understand why Patty has historically had difficulty recruiting top Texas talent to Norman. Not many families have an additional $30,000 to spend on their daughter's education despite most softball players traditionally coming from financially sound families as indicated by the cost to play summer travel ball.
"Do the players qualify for any other assistance? Do schools HAVE to charge out of state tuition?"
Yes students do have to pay out-of-state tuition. If a partial scholarship athlete gets financial aid other than athletic scholarship aid those dollars have to be applied to the athletic scholarship dollars maximum. The net saving then comes to the athletic department. For example a student has a partial athletic scholarship worth $10,000 and receives an additional $2,000 academic scholarship what transpires is the athletic scholarship dollars the athlete receives are reduced by $2,000 and the total athletic + academic scholarship dollars remains $10,000.
The NCAA does have specified government grant dollars that student athletes can receive for which there is a waiver based on financial need which would increase the net dollars the S-A would receive but the team is still restricted to the team restricted number of scholarships offered (12 for softball as an example).
First up, Patty Gasso and staff receive big raises! One thing is for sure with Castiglione, if you win National Championships for the University of Oklahoma he will make sure you get compensated.
OU Board of Regents approve Patty Gasso salary increase to $725k. #Sooners softball has won back-to-back NCAA titles. Made $481k last year.
The university’s Board of Regents approved to extend Gasso’s contract through 2024 with an annual stay bonus of $200,000, bringing Gasso’s gauranteed earnings to $925,000.
The raise comes after the Sooners beat Florida in the 2017 Women’s College World Series championship series in June. Gasso led Oklahoma to national titles in 2000, 2013 and 2016 as well.
Gasso took over the Oklahoma softball program in 1995. She’s led the school to all four of its national championships, all 11 of its WCWS appearances and she’s won 16 conference championships in 23 seasons as the Sooners head coach.
Lombardi went from $109,000 to $185,000
J.T.Gasso went from $83,400 to $125,000
Fall Softball Schedule
TWO-TIME DEFENDING CHAMPS ANNOUNCE FALL SLATE
NORMAN – The two-time defending national champion Oklahoma softball team unveiled its eight-game fall exhibition schedule Tuesday. All eight games will take place at Marita Hynes Field.
The fall schedule starts the weekend of Sept. 29 with the annual Fall Festival Tournament. Oklahoma opens play on Friday, Sept. 29, against Trinity Valley Community College at 4:45 p.m. before facing Temple College at 7 p.m. later that night. OU then plays twice Saturday with games at 4:45 p.m. against Seminole State and 7 p.m. against Northern Oklahoma.
2017 FALL SCHEDULE
Date Time (CT) Opponent
Sept. 29 4:45 p.m. Trinity Valley CC
Sept. 29 7 p.m. Temple College
Sept. 30 4:45 p.m. Seminole State
Sept. 30 7 p.m. Northern Oklahoma
Oct. 18 6 p.m. North Central Texas College
Oct. 29 12/2 p.m. Arkansas
Nov. 3 6 p.m. North Texas
Two and a half weeks later, the fall schedule picks back up when the Sooners take the field on Tuesday, Oct. 18 against North Central Texas College at 6 p.m.
Later in the month, OU hosts Arkansas in a doubleheader that begins at noon on Oct. 29. The teams met twice last year with Oklahoma capturing a 4-2 win during the regular season on April 5 and a 5-3 victory over the Razorbacks in an elimination game during the NCAA Regional on May 20.
Oklahoma then closes out the fall slate on Friday, Nov. 3 when it hosts North Texas at 6 p.m. Ten different Sooners had a hit when OU beat the Mean Green during the regular season, an 8-0, six-inning victory on April 18.
OU is coming off a season in which the Sooners won their second straight national title, third in the last five years and fourth overall. Oklahoma is also the six-time defending Big 12 champion, a run never before seen in the conference, after sweeping the regular season and tournament titles. The Sooners finished the 2017 season with a 61-9 record as they made their 11th appearance at the Women’s College World Series.
The team loses just one player from last year's squad and returns Second-Team All-Americans Caleigh Clifton, Shay Knighten (reigning Big 12 Player of the Year and WCWS Most Outstanding Player) and Paige Parker (three-time Big 12 Pitcher of the Year) in 2018.
In addition to Clifton, Knighten and Parker, returning all-region honorees include senior Nicole Pendley, juniors Falepolima Aviu and Sydney Romero, and freshman Nicole Mendes. Additionally, WCWS All-Tournament Team member Paige Lowary is also back for her senior season.
Along with the 17 returning members, Oklahoma welcomes in five newcomers, including a four-person freshman class and transfer pitcher Parker Conrad from the University of Missouri.
OC Batbusters-Stith
This travel club team will be stacked once again with Division 1 talent from the PAC-12 and Oklahoma.
Returning Oklahoma commits are:
2020 #2 3B Zaida Puni
2020 #16 2B/SS Destiny Noury
2020 #17 SS Tiare Jennings(Fast Riser)
2019 #65 P Alanna Thiede
2019 #83 P Olivia Rains(Fast Riser)
New Oklahoma additions:
2019 #1 C Kinzie Hansen
2020 #9 P/3B Nicole May(Fast Riser)
*Fast Riser means these players had big summers on the PGF circuit and I expect them to rise in their next class rankings. Obviously this team is loaded with Oklahoma commits from the 2020 class and with this class being updated this month it would not surprise me if in the next update Oklahoma has 4 commits in the Top 10 and possibly 3 in the the Top 5.
Random schollie info...
The restrictions of the scholarship limitation in softball (12 scholarships) really tells you how badly these girls coming from California, Texas and elsewhere really want to play for Patty. And how well Patty performs her job from a recruiting perspective.
By state law a girl from California, Texas or any other state that gets a half scholarship must pay out-of-state tuition for the balance of her scholarship. Per the link below the total cost of attendance at OU for out-of-state players is approximately $41,630 and $27,308 for in-state players. That means the player/families must come up with approximately $20,800 for out-of-state and $13,500 for in-state cost not covered by the scholarship.
UT in-state costs are approximately $26,626. So a Texas girl going to OU instead of UT is out an additional $7,500 ($41,630-$26,626/2= $7,502) out of pocket annually for going to OU instead of Texas. That is $30,000 over 4 years just to play for the Sooners. Wow!!!
UCLA in-state costs are approximately $31,900 so the California gals are paying an additional $4,865 annually and $19,460 for 4 years to go to OU.
The above numbers for Texas makes it easy to understand why Patty has historically had difficulty recruiting top Texas talent to Norman. Not many families have an additional $30,000 to spend on their daughter's education despite most softball players traditionally coming from financially sound families as indicated by the cost to play summer travel ball.
"Do the players qualify for any other assistance? Do schools HAVE to charge out of state tuition?"
Yes students do have to pay out-of-state tuition. If a partial scholarship athlete gets financial aid other than athletic scholarship aid those dollars have to be applied to the athletic scholarship dollars maximum. The net saving then comes to the athletic department. For example a student has a partial athletic scholarship worth $10,000 and receives an additional $2,000 academic scholarship what transpires is the athletic scholarship dollars the athlete receives are reduced by $2,000 and the total athletic + academic scholarship dollars remains $10,000.
The NCAA does have specified government grant dollars that student athletes can receive for which there is a waiver based on financial need which would increase the net dollars the S-A would receive but the team is still restricted to the team restricted number of scholarships offered (12 for softball as an example).
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