Ashley Chastain aims to balance South Carolina softball's recruiting from transfer portal, high school

Every time a new head coach is hired, a “changing of the guard” takes place. The old guard departs, and the new guard is ushered in.

The South Carolina softball program has followed a similar pattern in Ashley Chastain’s first month in charge.

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Within a week of Chastain’s hire, Gamecock softball filled all four vacancies within its coaching staff and administration. All four had ties to Chastain’s previous coaching destination — the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

A number of player commitments, both from the transfer portal and high school ranks, followed in the ensuing weeks. Chastain shared the importance of using both methods to bring in softball talent during a Garnet Trust Hour interview on 107.5 The Game.

The transfer portal has been a valuable way to add proven talent to South Carolina’s roster, Chastain said. She has personal experience with many players who have joined the Gamecocks this offseason. Of the seven players who have committed to South Carolina, five — pitchers Sam Gress and Kadi Becker, catcher Lexi Winters, infielder Ella Chaney and utility player Arianna Rodi — also played for Charlotte.

“Everyone has a story, so you just kind of have to vet the story through the recruiting process with the portal and figure out what they’re looking for, giving them the experience they want the second go-around,” Chastain said. “I think (the) portal, right away, is huge for us of getting players in here that want to be a Gamecock through and through, that want to bleed the Garnet and Black. I’ve had a ton of conversations over the past 10, 14 days about that.”

Chastain added that she has longterm goals for how South Carolina will use the portal as it develops into a mainstay in college athletics.

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“The portal’s not going away, not that I see, anytime soon, so we just embrace it. There’s just so many good players out there, like I said that have a story that want to leave their setup for whatever reason,” Chastain said. “We want to get the best players in the country. That’s going to be a process to build, but we just want to be aggressive with that right away.”

The transfer portal is not Chastain’s only emphasis when it comes to player acquisition, though. She said one of South Carolina’s key to success is recruiting the Palmetto State’s top prospects.

“We want to put a fence around the state. The best players in the state need to be a Gamecock. That’s probably going to take a little bit more time, just with more success and building the program where we want to build it,” Chastain said. “We’re definitely going to attack that right away. But I think that longevity is that we want the best players in the state to stay here.”

Chastain said she also hopes the South Carolina softball team becomes more public about its recruiting affairs on social media. Both Shane Beamer and Terry Rooney use “Welcome home” posts to signal new football and baseball commitments, respectively.

Chastain and associate head coach Katie Browder have begun discussions about doing the same for Gamecock softball.

“She’s been having those conversations with me over the last few days of, ‘We’ve got to get it going on socials so people know what’s happening,’” Chastain said. “We need to have something that is very authentic and specialized to softball for sure. So, we’ll work on that. I’ll have that here really shortly.”

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