UF coach Tim Walton is set to embark on his next venture with USA Softball.
Harry Fodder: For Walton, Lots of Softball to Smile About
Wednesday, October 18, 2023 | Softball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The future of softball – locally, nationally, globally – has Florida coach Tim Walton in a very good mood these days.
The UF complex has been infused this semester by a jolt of collective youth and talent the likes of which the program hasn't seen in years, all while Walton has been invigorated by what's ahead for another passion of his, USA Softball, both in the short term and long term. And he's in the middle of all of it.
Let's start on the home front. For years (yes, years), Walton and the devoted UF fan base have been looking forward to this 2023-24 athletic year and the arrival of one of the most hyped freshman classes in program history. Depending on the recruiting service, pitchers Ava Brown and Keagan Rothrock, along with infielder Mia Williams have ranked anywhere from first to fourth overall in their class. They're all here now, plus four other freshmen and a couple of marquee transfers, and from the moment these newbies set foot on campus were seen as foundational and transformational building blocks to help the Gators bounce back from the first season since 2012 to end in the NCAA regional round.
The hype, apparently, was justified.
Freshman pitcher Ava Brownin action during Tuesday night's win over USF.
"There's a lot on this team I really like," Walton said after Tuesday night's 11-2 fall-season defeat of South Florida at Pressly Stadium. "The measurables are faster, stronger, competitive and [they] really want to win. And then there's the work ethic. They're doing the required and unrequired things, which is always the key. A high-achieving team does things because they want to, not because they have to."
Fifth-year senior shortstop and reigning NFCA Player of the Year Skylar Wallace, who set a team single-season record by hitting .447 in '23, has seen all those traits. On a recent off day, she ducked into the UF weight room for an extra lift (as first-team All Americans tend to do) only to find her freshmen teammates there, also.
"It's like they're holding us to a higher standard, without them even knowing it. If they're busting their butts why aren't the older kids busting theirs too, right?" Wallace said. "They want to be the best and have high expectations of themselves to compete and grind it out. This is not their first rodeo, even though it really is. But they don't act like freshmen at all."
Or talk like freshmen.
Williams., the daughter of former UF and NBA point guard Jason Williams, was asked about the buildup that came with this class.
"We think we're the real deal," she said.
Added Brown: "I believe everything they're hoping this [freshman] class and this transfer class bring is an understatement of what we're really going to bring. I think we're going to exceed expectations."
Mia Williams played second base and shorstop during UF's two exhibition games.
The Gators will lean heavily on Brown, the 2023 Gatorade National Player of the Year who pitched in both fall victories, and Rothrock, the 2022 Gatorade National Player of the Year, who will make her fall debut Thursday night against Saint Leo.
Feast your eyes on these stats: Brown went 81-0 with a 0.55 ERA during her Texas prep days, while Rockrock was 77-4 with a 0.45 ERA in Indiana. Feel free to read those numbers again, just in case.
The Florida program hasn't had a true buzzsaw in the circle since Kelly Barnhill left after four stellar seasons in 2019. Make no mistake, a Barnhill-like spotlight will beam down on both Brown and Rothrock come spring. That's a lot to put on the shoulders of a couple collegiate rookies, but that's what Walton brought them here for.
"There's no other choice, with what [pitchers] we graduated and where we are," Walton said. "That's where the older players will have to help them along the way, to pump them up, not let them cut corners, to tell them they don't have to be perfect and to keep putting in the time to get better and tougher."
With his 1,049 career victories – including 926 wins, 11 Women's College World Series appearances and two NCAA championships at Florida – Walton knows what great softball looks like and the work it takes to get there. His impressive resume is why Walton was asked to join USA Softball nearly a decade ago, with the prestigious calling already having yielded some of the most gratifying rewards of his career. They include his place as an assistant (charged with defense and third base coaching) on three gold medal-winning teams.
On Tuesday, Walton will take a mini-break from the Gators to join Team USA when it heads to Santiago, Chile for the 2023 Pan American Games, where an all-star squad featuring the likes of Montana Fouts, Rachel Garcia and former UF superstar Amanda Lorenz will try to defend the country's 2019 title and claim a 12th gold medal in the Games' history, dating to 1979.
Oh, and then there was the news early in the week that softball would return to the Olympics for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, along with baseball, also. Softball was eliminated from the Games after the 2008 Olympics.
"I'm ecstatic about that," said Walton, who over the summer was in Ireland coaching with Team USA when the team qualified for the 2024 WBSC World Cup. "They can't play baseball in the Olympics without softball. We're the United States of America. It's our national past time."
And it was well passed time for both to be back in the Games.
Walton spoke about how kids play these bat-and-ball games perhaps dreaming of one day being in the Olympics and experiencing something special. Take 2019, for example. Walton was third-base coach for Team USA in the Junior World Championships at Irvine, Calif. The Americans trailed Japan in the championship game when Oregon State's Frankie Hammoude smashed a pinch-hit three-run homer to tie the score in the bottom of the seventh. Moments later, Walton was waving home Charla Echols, one of his Gators, with the game-winning, gold medal-clinching run. The embrace he shared with Echols was something the two will never forget.
This is the best news for the sport and for every softball athlete in the world that gets up early to work hard for her dreams. Now those dreams again can be goals! Thank you to those that fought so hard for this announcement.
LA28🥎 https://t.co/fWQdBT59Dw
Walton doesn't know if he'll be on the Olympic staff in '28. He only knows that he's gratified the game will be back on the greatest of all international stages. Maybe one of the players on the Florida campus right now will have a moment like Echols did.
"There's a couple who could be there," Walton said.
Yeah, it's been a good fall so far. For Walton, there's a chance for it to get even better in South America. That would make a great warm-up to what is looming as an exciting, potentially great Gators softball spring.
