Patty Gasso, Oklahoma ready to 'fire first' as Sooners begin quest for 4th-straight national title

The 2024 Oklahoma softball team is trying to do something unprecedented in the sport: Win a fourth-consecutive national championship. And Sooners head coach Patty Gasso doesn’t want a group that will be passive in defending their crown.

Speaking with reporters at a preseason press conference on Monday, Gasso explained some of the mindset she’s seeking to instill. Simple, the Sooners can’t be caught looking back, either at their own successes of the target they wear as the three-time national champs.

“I’m not a real deep thinker when it comes to things like that. I just go, I just go,” Gasso said. “I think that’s why you don’t — we try to be a very humble group. We don’t look back at our laurels, we just want to keep running forward, keep raising the OU flag, keep being that team that everybody’s trying to get. They’ve embraced that. That’s a tough place to be. We were always a team that even though we were not underdogs, I would talk them into the fact that we’re underdogs. Now, I can’t do that anymore. They understand where they stand, but they’re ready to fire back. They’re ready to fire first. That’s really the attitude.”

Gasso also wasn’t shying away from the fact the target on the back of the Oklahoma team in 2024 is bigger, or at least more prominent, than ever.

“This one is just different,” Gasso said. “The expectation — and winning four in a row is unheard of. Unheard of. You can’t even wrap your mind around it. Even winning three. So for them, they want to be a team that did something that maybe nobody, in maybe my life, will ever do on the softball field again. And that is something special. And they like to be able to chase those moments. But we gotta do it without thinking of outcomes and results. We’ve gotta do it, just in a free manner, which is when they’re at their best.”

Perhaps more than anything, Gasso is excited to see which players rise to the challenges this season will inevitably present.

And the Oklahoma head coach has a sense this year will test the team more than recent years.

“This is going to be a tough one, this is going to be a really tough season for us,” Gasso said. “I feel that coming, so I’m able to see what kind of women rise from the ashes here. That’s going to be the most important thing.”