Gasso, Sooners preparing for final run with 'monumental' senior class

Norman — There are plenty of storylines for Oklahoma's 2024 season.

The Sooners are seeking the program's fourth-consecutive national championship and eighth overall. In March, the Sooners will play their first games at Love's field, the program's new stadium. It will also be the Sooners' final season in the Big 12.

But Patty Gasso wasted no time setting the theme for this year's season.

"(Our) upperclassmen are excited. There's 10 of them — 10 very, very monumental athletes that have been in our program, that I hope everyone gets to enjoy this last season with them," Gasso said. "They're special. They've done special things here."

Nearly half of the Sooners' roster is seniors, including former transfers Alyssa Brito, Kelly Maxwell, Riley Ludlam, Karley Keeney and Alynah Torres. Brito, who played at Oregon her freshman season, has started at third base and has been a key player in the Sooners’ last two title runs.

But really it's about, as Jayda Coleman dubbed it, the "core five" — Tiare Jennings, Nicole May, Kinzie Hansen, Rylie Boone and Coleman.

Those five seniors have spent every year of their career with the Sooners and all have made immeasurable contributions to the program. They've all played significant roles on three straight national championship teams.

For Gasso, it's important to acknowledge the significance of this core.

"I think about them more than I ever have," Gasso said. "Because I know this is like the end of… I don’t want to say that because we have a good freshman class. It’s not the end of a big long string. But it is the end of one of the most elite classes that has ever and may ever play softball. So that’s why I understand that because I get to see it every day."

It's not just special from a broad-picture perspective. These five seniors will lead the unanimous top-ranked Sooners on the diamond in 2024 for a season that is expected to end in another national championship.

Jennings, who has started 183 games for the Sooners, is moving from second base and will be the Sooners' starting shortstop, replacing Grace Lyons. Hansen, entering her fifth season as a starter, will reclaim her place at catcher. Both Jennings and Hansen have been named as co-captains for this season.

Coleman — the reigning Big 12 Player of the Year — will again be at the center, both literally and figuratively, of the Sooners' outfield, and is coming off a 2023 campaign that included a career-best 17 home runs and 48 RBIs. Boone is entering her third season as the starter at left field, and has continued to bring consistency in the Sooners' batting lineup.

May — who Gasso dubbed the "matriarch" of the Sooners' pitching staff — is coming off a career-best campaign that included a 0.91 ERA and 130 strikeouts in over 107 innings pitched.

"They’re special," Gasso said of the core. "They’re different. And their style of competitive spirit is very infectious on this team. And it’s really infectious to our freshmen, which is exactly what I’m looking for. So they have big personalities.”

With a program that's been as successful as Oklahoma's, there's a lot of goals for this core heading into their final run. A big focus has been maintaining the standard of excellence at Oklahoma. A part of that is serving as leaders to the current underclassmen, particularly the freshmen, that will take over next season when the Sooners transition into the SEC.

"What this upperclassmen group has been doing for us is really taking time to teach them," Gasso said. "So if something happens in the outfield, Jayda Coleman is right there saying, ‘Hey look, you’ve got to do this.’ So is Rylie Boone. They’re doing good jobs of that. Hitting-wise you’ve got Alyssa Brito, Tiare, Kinzie Hansen will bring them in and hit extra with them. So I have to lean on this upperclassmen group because I’ve asked them, 'Who was that person for you?' And that person was Lynnsie Elam. That person was Grace Lyons. They all had a name.

"I’m like, ‘Don’t you want to be that name? Don’t you want them to say that about you when they’re seniors?’ And just trying to get them to understand their worth and handing the torch to this next group."

But for this core of five, a big focus has been on having fun.

"I feel like we just truly find joy in the grind," Coleman said. "It is truly fun to grind throughout the fall and, even during this time, when you get in the World Series, you feel so confident because you know no one has worked harder than you. And just like she was saying, we live for the Lord. And so when we just know that it’s already written, we can just go out there and have a blast.

"I feel like that’s where we find the joy, the core five. I’m adding Brito, so it’s the core six."

As this core five — or core six, with Brito included — and the Sooners head into another season with lofty expectations, they know that there's plenty of reasons that this season could be special.

Gasso is hoping to enjoy the ride.

"They’re great players," Gasso said. "Great young women. It’s going to be hard to see them go. I’m not going to think about it. I’m just going to coach the heck out of them and try to get every ounce of softball out of them that we can.”