Friday, May 3
Salt Lake City, UT
5:00 PM
University of Oregon
at
Utah
Photo by: Rob Moseley/GoDucks.com
Softball Idol Becomes Friend, Mentor
05/02/19 | Softball, @GoDucksMoseley
Volunteer assistant coach Sierra Romero, one of the best players in college softball history, has helped mentor Oregon's young infield this season.
Even the Cliff's Notes version of Sierra Romero's career on the softball field reads like an epic.
Four-time all-American at Michigan. Two-time national player of the year. The first player in NCAA history with at least 300 hits, 300 runs and 300 RBIs. An NCAA record 11 career grand slams. Named, in 2017, the fifth-best player in Division-I history. The No. 2 pick in the 2016 professional draft, and a three-year standout with the USSSA Pride who hit .407 in the summer of 2018.
So one could excuse, then, the reaction of the Oregon softball team when Romero was introduced last fall as a volunteer assistant on the new staff of head coach Melyssa Lombardi. This was like Steph Curry taking time out from playing with the Golden State Warriors to help out Dana Altman, or Breanna Stewart joining Kelly Graves' UO women's basketball staff.
"They were star-struck," Lombardi recalled recently. "Yeah, for sure. And who wouldn't be? Who wouldn't be?"
The foundation of the 2019 Oregon softball team has been veteran leadership from Haley Cruse, Shaye Bowden, April Utecht and Cherish Burks, plus the durable arm of starting pitcher Jordan Dail. The Ducks travel to play this weekend at Utah still mathematically alive for a postseason berth with a 21-25 overall record, and those veterans have played a huge role in turning what was supposed to be a rebuilding year into another potential playoff year.
But the Ducks would be nowhere without the impact of their freshman class, and particularly the trio that has started all season long on the infield — Allee Bunker at second base, Jasmine Sievers at shortstop and Rachel Cid at third base. And those three wouldn't be where they are without the influence of Romero, the all-time great softball star who has spent this spring in the UO dugout.
"Anyone who knows college softball in general knows the name Sierra Romero," Bunker said. "It's just amazing. As soon as coach Lombardi announced she was going to be one of our coaches, I was like, 'Wow — this is incredible. How did we get someone like that?' "
The short answer is, Romero long intended to be a coach, and jumped at the chance to work for Lombardi, a college softball legend in her own right. The longer answer involves a confluence of events that took place late last summer.
Lombardi had taken the Oregon job after working as an assistant at Oklahoma, where Romero's younger sister, Sydney, is a senior this season. Lombardi thus knew the Romero family well, although Sierra mostly by reputation only. But Sydney had mentioned that Sierra wanted to coach some day; Lombardi remembered that when she was identifying candidates to coach Oregon's infield this season.
Romero, meanwhile, played the final year of her first professional contract with the USSSA Pride last summer, with no promise of what 2019 would hold. She didn't intend to begin coaching until after her playing career was finished, and she didn't necessarily believe it was finished after last summer. But when Lombardi called, Romero picked up.
"I was, like, in shock that she wanted me as part of her staff," Romero said. "I was honored."
It seems that, for as star-struck as Oregon's players were when initially meeting Romero, so too was Romero when offered a job by Lombardi, who had helped Oklahoma win four national championships.
"It's not like she's just another coach," Romero said. "She's one of the best coaches out there. So I thought it would almost be silly for me to pass this up, and miss out on an opportunity to learn from her.
"When I do end up wanting to coach, as an assistant or head coach one day, I want to know the ins and outs of it. I want to know what's good, what's bad. And I was like, I'm gonna learn so much from her."
The USSA Pride's general manager, Don DeDonatis, agreed that, "you can't pass that up," Romero said. And it's not as though he was nudging her into retirement; the Pride recently re-signed Romero to a new three-year playing contract beginning this June.
The 2018 professional season had barely ended when Romero was packing her things and moving to Eugene. She arrived to join a young Ducks team that struggled to keep its cool around the living softball legend.
"Definitely the first time meeting her, I was biting my tongue," said Utecht, the primary first baseman for those three freshmen around the rest of the infield. "And I think a few of the other girls were too, because, oh my gosh, it's Sierra Romero. Everyone knows who she is."
Some elite players can struggle to transition into coaching, unable to explain to others what comes to them so effortlessly. For Romero, that hasn't been the case. If her message isn't being received adequately, she finds a different way to word it, Utecht said. And of course, she can always grab a glove to demonstrate what she wants the young Ducks to learn.
"She doesn't just bark at you; she really makes sure you understand what she's saying, and she really knows her fundamentals," Bunker said. "And she doesn't change her ideas about anything; practice to practice, she stays consistent. So I think it's been easy to kind of follow her lead, and learn from the best."
From the first interview she did previewing the 2019 season for the Ducks, Lombardi expressed confidence that her young infield would be a strength. At the time, it sounded like a coach working to instill confidence in untested players. But as it turned out, Lombardi was right, thanks to the groundwork laid by Romero with her infielders over the offseason.
A primary message: The field doesn't know your age. When you step between the foul lines, you're a softball player — full stop — and it's time to make plays. Regardless of your academic class.
"I never really thought of it that way," Utecht said. "But when you put it in that perspective, it changes anything."
That ability to infuse confidence was another trait of Romero's that Lombardi coveted. Not only was she a feared slugger at Michigan, Romero was a tough leader. The players around her raised their level of play when she was on the field, prodded both by her prodigious talent and her sometimes sharp tongue.
As a coach at Oregon, Romero has had the same effect. Despite starting three freshmen in the infield and another in the outfield most of the season, the Ducks are fourth among the Pac-12's nine softball teams in fielding percentage, at .969. Their 36 errors are fourth-fewest in the conference, and six of those came this past weekend, untimely breakdowns in losses to Oregon State.
They were untimely and also uncharacteristic, for a UO defense that has generally performed with aplomb.
"To be able to make quick decisions at a fast pace, to not get overwhelmed, to be decisive, to be confident in what they're doing — I think (Romero) brings all of that out in them," Lombardi said.
The tenure of a volunteer assistant tends not to be long, a year or two in most cases. Given Romero's new professional contract, juggling work as both a player and coach may be unrealistic in the near term. Lombardi would love to retain her for 2020, but knows the pressures Romero is facing.
Regardless of what the future holds, Romero has put her stamp on this new era of Oregon softball. She's had a season to pick Lombardi's brain, and the young Ducks have been able to learn from one of their idols.
No more are Oregon's player tongue-tied and awe-struck around the softball legend who occupies their dugout.
"They're definitely more comfortable because they can joke around, but what's nice is, we have a good balance," Romero said. "Like, they know they can joke with me. They know I can make fun of them, they can make fun of me.
"But they also know that when we're in a game, things are getting serious. I'll light them up; I'm going to tell them how it is. And I expect them to be better. And I expect them to be mature athletes. And so it's nice to have that relationship with them where I can have that friend relationship, but I also have that coach relationship. We have both."
Four-time all-American at Michigan. Two-time national player of the year. The first player in NCAA history with at least 300 hits, 300 runs and 300 RBIs. An NCAA record 11 career grand slams. Named, in 2017, the fifth-best player in Division-I history. The No. 2 pick in the 2016 professional draft, and a three-year standout with the USSSA Pride who hit .407 in the summer of 2018.
So one could excuse, then, the reaction of the Oregon softball team when Romero was introduced last fall as a volunteer assistant on the new staff of head coach Melyssa Lombardi. This was like Steph Curry taking time out from playing with the Golden State Warriors to help out Dana Altman, or Breanna Stewart joining Kelly Graves' UO women's basketball staff.
"They were star-struck," Lombardi recalled recently. "Yeah, for sure. And who wouldn't be? Who wouldn't be?"
The foundation of the 2019 Oregon softball team has been veteran leadership from Haley Cruse, Shaye Bowden, April Utecht and Cherish Burks, plus the durable arm of starting pitcher Jordan Dail. The Ducks travel to play this weekend at Utah still mathematically alive for a postseason berth with a 21-25 overall record, and those veterans have played a huge role in turning what was supposed to be a rebuilding year into another potential playoff year.
But the Ducks would be nowhere without the impact of their freshman class, and particularly the trio that has started all season long on the infield — Allee Bunker at second base, Jasmine Sievers at shortstop and Rachel Cid at third base. And those three wouldn't be where they are without the influence of Romero, the all-time great softball star who has spent this spring in the UO dugout.
"Anyone who knows college softball in general knows the name Sierra Romero," Bunker said. "It's just amazing. As soon as coach Lombardi announced she was going to be one of our coaches, I was like, 'Wow — this is incredible. How did we get someone like that?' "
The short answer is, Romero long intended to be a coach, and jumped at the chance to work for Lombardi, a college softball legend in her own right. The longer answer involves a confluence of events that took place late last summer.
Lombardi had taken the Oregon job after working as an assistant at Oklahoma, where Romero's younger sister, Sydney, is a senior this season. Lombardi thus knew the Romero family well, although Sierra mostly by reputation only. But Sydney had mentioned that Sierra wanted to coach some day; Lombardi remembered that when she was identifying candidates to coach Oregon's infield this season.
Romero, meanwhile, played the final year of her first professional contract with the USSSA Pride last summer, with no promise of what 2019 would hold. She didn't intend to begin coaching until after her playing career was finished, and she didn't necessarily believe it was finished after last summer. But when Lombardi called, Romero picked up.
"I was, like, in shock that she wanted me as part of her staff," Romero said. "I was honored."
It seems that, for as star-struck as Oregon's players were when initially meeting Romero, so too was Romero when offered a job by Lombardi, who had helped Oklahoma win four national championships.
"It's not like she's just another coach," Romero said. "She's one of the best coaches out there. So I thought it would almost be silly for me to pass this up, and miss out on an opportunity to learn from her.
"When I do end up wanting to coach, as an assistant or head coach one day, I want to know the ins and outs of it. I want to know what's good, what's bad. And I was like, I'm gonna learn so much from her."
The USSA Pride's general manager, Don DeDonatis, agreed that, "you can't pass that up," Romero said. And it's not as though he was nudging her into retirement; the Pride recently re-signed Romero to a new three-year playing contract beginning this June.
The 2018 professional season had barely ended when Romero was packing her things and moving to Eugene. She arrived to join a young Ducks team that struggled to keep its cool around the living softball legend.
"Definitely the first time meeting her, I was biting my tongue," said Utecht, the primary first baseman for those three freshmen around the rest of the infield. "And I think a few of the other girls were too, because, oh my gosh, it's Sierra Romero. Everyone knows who she is."
Some elite players can struggle to transition into coaching, unable to explain to others what comes to them so effortlessly. For Romero, that hasn't been the case. If her message isn't being received adequately, she finds a different way to word it, Utecht said. And of course, she can always grab a glove to demonstrate what she wants the young Ducks to learn.
"She doesn't just bark at you; she really makes sure you understand what she's saying, and she really knows her fundamentals," Bunker said. "And she doesn't change her ideas about anything; practice to practice, she stays consistent. So I think it's been easy to kind of follow her lead, and learn from the best."
From the first interview she did previewing the 2019 season for the Ducks, Lombardi expressed confidence that her young infield would be a strength. At the time, it sounded like a coach working to instill confidence in untested players. But as it turned out, Lombardi was right, thanks to the groundwork laid by Romero with her infielders over the offseason.
A primary message: The field doesn't know your age. When you step between the foul lines, you're a softball player — full stop — and it's time to make plays. Regardless of your academic class.
"I never really thought of it that way," Utecht said. "But when you put it in that perspective, it changes anything."
That ability to infuse confidence was another trait of Romero's that Lombardi coveted. Not only was she a feared slugger at Michigan, Romero was a tough leader. The players around her raised their level of play when she was on the field, prodded both by her prodigious talent and her sometimes sharp tongue.
As a coach at Oregon, Romero has had the same effect. Despite starting three freshmen in the infield and another in the outfield most of the season, the Ducks are fourth among the Pac-12's nine softball teams in fielding percentage, at .969. Their 36 errors are fourth-fewest in the conference, and six of those came this past weekend, untimely breakdowns in losses to Oregon State.
They were untimely and also uncharacteristic, for a UO defense that has generally performed with aplomb.
"To be able to make quick decisions at a fast pace, to not get overwhelmed, to be decisive, to be confident in what they're doing — I think (Romero) brings all of that out in them," Lombardi said.
The tenure of a volunteer assistant tends not to be long, a year or two in most cases. Given Romero's new professional contract, juggling work as both a player and coach may be unrealistic in the near term. Lombardi would love to retain her for 2020, but knows the pressures Romero is facing.
Regardless of what the future holds, Romero has put her stamp on this new era of Oregon softball. She's had a season to pick Lombardi's brain, and the young Ducks have been able to learn from one of their idols.
No more are Oregon's player tongue-tied and awe-struck around the softball legend who occupies their dugout.
"They're definitely more comfortable because they can joke around, but what's nice is, we have a good balance," Romero said. "Like, they know they can joke with me. They know I can make fun of them, they can make fun of me.
"But they also know that when we're in a game, things are getting serious. I'll light them up; I'm going to tell them how it is. And I expect them to be better. And I expect them to be mature athletes. And so it's nice to have that relationship with them where I can have that friend relationship, but I also have that coach relationship. We have both."
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