California Girls: West Coast Gators Going Home
Thursday, February 26, 2015 | Softball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- During the Women's College World Series last year, the ESPN cameras often aimed at the Florida dugout and caught the Gators wearing their rally caps and twirling their rally Twizzlers on the way to the program's first national championship.
Meanwhile, half a continent away in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., family members of UF outfielder Justine McLean were glued to televisions and twirling Twizzlers in support of the Gators long-distance, style.
“They couldn't be there, but they were really, really into it,” McLean said. “My mom is one of 13 children. We once counted and I think we came up with 58 [relatives] on my mother's side.”
She grinned.
“I'm going to have a lot of people there,” McLean said. “This is going to be fun.”
This would be the dream regular-season road trip for a nice chunk of the Gators squad. Call it a homecoming of sorts, though it'll be staged nearly 2,500 miles from the UF campus.
The Gators, defending NCAA champions and still sporting an unblemished record, split Thursday for California and dates in a pair of prestigious tournaments that will double as an ultra-competitive launching pad into the Southeastern Conference season as well as a showcase for the sparkling homegrown Golden State talent sprinkled throughout the roster of the nation's premier program.
Of the 20 players on the UF roster, six hail from California. So does Coach Tim Walton, as well as both of his assistant coaches. All of them are very familiar with the San Diego Classic (Friday-Sunday) and the Judi Garman Classic (March 5-7) at Fullerton, Calif., both of which offer fields loaded with some of the best programs in the country.
Florida will waste no time testing its season-opening hot streak. The No. 1 Gators (17-0) will play No. 2 Oregon (14-1) on Friday, in their first of 11 games over the next nine days.
“Some of these kids are going to play in front of friends and family who have never seen them play in person,” Walton said. “Now, they'll do it with a little bit of celebrity status. People are going to say, 'Hey, the Gators are in town, let's go watch 'em play.' And some of those celebrities will be locals.”
Like sophomore left-hander Delanie Gourley (above right), whose home in Lakeside is about 20 minutes from home plate at the San Diego State Softball Complex. The two-time California Gatorade Player of the Year at El Capitan High, Gourley was one of the most dominant pitchers in the history of the state, striking 1,352 batters in her prep career.
“It's so exciting,” said Gourley of going home. “My mom has put it on Facebook to come out and watch us and I've seen all these people posting and commenting that they're going, with friends texting me and saying they'll be there. I can't wait.”
Besides McLean and Gourley, senior shortstop Katie Medina (Downey, Calif.; pictured below right), junior catcher Aubree Munro (Brea, Calif.; below), plus freshmen Nicole DeWitt (Garden Grove, Calif.) and Janell Wheaton (San Dimas, Calif.) are headed home, also.
Junior catcher Aubree Munro is from Brea, Calif., minutes from Cal State-Fullerton, site of next weekend's Judi Garman Classic. She recalls going to the tournament every year as a kid.
For Walton, now in his ninth season, the west coast roadie, is a staple. For eight straight years, the Gators have headed to either California or Arizona or Las Vegas for tournaments. It not only exposes his program to prospects out west, but it' has made for nice perks for his players. Not coincidentally, some of the all-time great Gators -- Stacey Nelson, Francesca Enea, Kelsey Bruder, Megan Bush, Aja Paculba, Brittany Schutte, Kim Waleszonia and Stephanie Tofft -- having hailed from Southern California, which cranks out some of the nation's finest prospects year in and out.
“It's a hot spot. There are just a ton of great teams and players there,” said Munro, UF's outstanding catcher and defensive general whose hometown of Brea borders Fullerton; she grew up attending the Fullerton Classic every year. “We can play year around out there, where as the [cities] up north, they can't. We're softball crazy 12 months out of the year.”
The love it and live it, but also really, really learn it.
“There's something about their knowledge of the game,” Walton said of the prototypical California standout. “The kids you get from out there seem to have such a high softball IQ. You can see it and it and sense when it when you talk to them.”
It goes to the next level when they come to Florida to play.
Take DeWitt and Wheaton, for example. They showed up as rookies on a team with returning starters at every position but third base. They've started 12 and six games, respectively.
Credit Walton, who grew up in Cerritos on the Orange and Los Angeles county borders, for developing the cross-country pipeline. Any of star players -- the ones then or now -- could stayed in the PST time zone for some outstanding softball programs.
Instead, they came east.
“Part of it is me and my knowledge of where they're from and how they do it out there and a big part of it is the success we've had here,” Walton said. “And also the success with the kids we've brought from California, that's been a big positive.”
Gourley recalled coming for her recruiting visit. The stadium was dark and Walton took her to the pitcher's circle and turned on the Pressly Stadium lights. Imagine, he said, it's Friday night of a huge SEC game ... and it's your game to win.
“I fell for it,” Gourley said.
Walton, of course, did one better for Gourley last year. In the WCWS-clinching Game-2 win over Alabama last year, he trusted Gourley, then a freshman, for two innings of pressure-packed Oklahoma City relief so he could save ace and eventual series MVP Hannah Rogers for the final two innings.
She fired two hitless innings -- and was credited with the victory -- before turning it over to Rogers to finish off a national championship.
Now that's some California dreamin'.
Consider this trip some more.
“I think we're all still California girls,” McLean said. “But we're all Gators and we all love Florida.”
