Heather Tarr says this Washington team was 'a legacy'

Washington returned to the Women’s College World Series after a four-year absence was some firepower. The Huskies opened their time in Oklahoma City with a victory before falling in the next two games to depart from the tournament just before the semifinals.

It was a disappointing way to end the season for head coach Heather Tarr and the Washington squad. But Tarr believes this year’s team has built something special.

“I think I’m going to look back at looking at this group as a legacy,” Tarr said after the Huskies lost to Stanford. “You get to recreate it, and that’s the best part about being a college softball coach is that graduation happens. It could be really sad, but I’m sad because we don’t get this team anymore, but I’m more happy because of the model that this group left and the way in which we get to like fill the mold the next year.

Tarr knows what success looks like for the Washington softball program. A great player for the Huskies in the 1990s, Tarr has been the head coach of the program for nearly two decades.

During that time, Washington has now made seven Women’s College World Series appearances — including this year. That includes a title in 2009 and a runner-up finish in 2018.

But Huskies had not been back to Oklahoma City since 2019 prior to the start of the postseason.

“I think last year’s group, it was hard because we ended at regionals,” Tarr said. “So it was really hard for this group as a unit to forecast out and really see the College World Series and the whys and what-fors in November and December. But for that matter, we know what this looks like. We know what this feels like. There’s a lot of upset people, and it was upset because we think we fell short of our goal.”

The 2023 Washington team finished the year with a 44-15 record and a 16-8 conference mark while getting to host both a Regional and a Super Regional in Seattle.

“So now we get to go into the rest of June framing that, talking about that, and every single thing we do can be this end in mind,” Tarr said. “So we always start with the end in mind, and this is where we ended. That group gets to lead from this point, and we’re so excited about it.”