Ashley Chastain Woodard: 'I’m just really happy to bring the tournament to Columbia'

Ashley Chastain Woodard never experienced anything like this when she was a player. But here she was, now as a coach, with her team at Carolina Ale House Sunday night, waiting to learn their NCAA Tournament fate.

The moment of truth approached. One by one, the top seven seeds were revealed. Chastain Woodard watched intently, hoping South Carolina softball would be the final team to earn a top-eight seed. If selected, it would mean not only hosting a regional but a super regional as well, right in their backyard in Columbia.

As the No. 8 seed flashed on the TV screen, so did the Gamecock logo. All who gathered at the restaurant to watch — players, coaches, families, fans — erupted into pandemonium.

“It was an exciting day,” the first-year coach said at the Welcome Home Tour in Rock Hill on Monday. “I know the team is really excited still, but we’re looking forward to it.”

South Carolina will host a regional at Beckham Field for the first time since 2018, starting on Friday. The Gamecocks will face Elon (5:30, ESPN Plus) in their opening game, with two-seed Virginia and three-seed North Florida also squaring off (3 p.m., ESPN Plus).

This will be the third straight season in which Chastain has led a team to the postseason. She took Charlotte to its only-ever trips to the tournament in 2023 and 2024. She’ll be doing it again, this time with her alma mater.

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When she pitched for the Gamecocks, the program was in a much different place compared to now. From 2009-11, she played for South Carolina teams that never got to this point. She was even on the 2010 team in Joyce Compton’s final season that went 11-40 with one SEC win.

Being back at South Carolina, less than a year after being hired as the new head coach, it’s an entirely different experience for her.

“I think the sport has changed so much since I played it in my time at Carolina. It’s bigger, it’s better. There’s just a lot of interest. The sport is growing nationally. We have a lot more attention, a lot more investment, financially, resources, like all kinds of things,” Chastain Woodard said.

“It feels very professional to me. I mean, not that my experience did not feel professional before, but there’s just some aspects of what we do now that we did not do 15 years ago. So yeah, it’s a big deal.”

In her first year, Chastain Woodard has accomplished more than enough to deem this season a success. She broke the program record for wins as a first-year coach, previously held by Judy Martino with 38 wins in 1979. As those wins stacked up, South Carolina won 40 games for only the third time since 2003. 

Anything from this point on would be icing on the cake. But with home-field advantage throughout the first two rounds of the tournament, the Gamecocks have a serious chance to make it to the Women’s College World Series for the first time since 1997.

“I’m just really happy to bring the tournament to Columbia, to our fans, for them to enjoy, and, you know, to get more people behind the program, because it’s like I said, it’s an exciting sport,” Chastain Woodard said. “I think a lot of people are starting to get interested in it, and they have an opportunity to see some of the best softball that’s going to be played in the postseason here at home.”

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