How Oklahoma State softball coach Kenny Gajewki's risky assistant coaching hires paid off

STILLWATER — It’s fair to say Kenny Gajewski took a gamble when he hired Carrie Eberle as Oklahoma State softball’s new pitching coach last summer.

And you could classify Gajewski’s decision to make a mid-winter change at hitting coach even more risky, moving from an established assistant in Whitney Cloer to a first-timer in Vanessa Shippy-Fletcher.

If that’s how gambling works out for Gajewski, maybe he needs to make a quick trip to Las Vegas before the fifth-seeded Cowgirls open the Stillwater Super Regional on Friday.

OSU hosts unseeded Arizona in the best-of-three series beginning at 7 p.m. Friday at Cowgirl Stadium. The second game is set for 6 p.m. Saturday, and if needed, the final game will be Sunday at a time to be announced.

With a berth in the Women’s College World Series on the line, the Cowgirls are focused on a fifth straight trip to the pinnacle of college softball. And while the program’s consistent success at an elite level might suggest similar consistency among players and coaches, this program has gone through a lot of changes since last year.

While it has been players — like emergent stars Ivy Rosenberry and Claire Timm or first-year Cowgirls Jilyen Poullard, Karli Godwin and Caroline Wang — who seem to be the most notable difference-makers, the behind-the-scenes work of Eberle and Shippy-Fletcher has been a cornerstone of OSU’s success.

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Gajewski could’ve sought out veteran coaches who wanted to be part of such a special program, but he knew he needed people who fit what he was looking for as leaders for his team.

Eberle, after pitching for the Cowgirls in her final two seasons, stuck with the program as a graduate assistant in 2022 before getting her first full-time coaching job at Lipscomb last year.

Shippy-Fletcher was a three-time All-American for the Cowgirls, and had spent one year as an assistant on the staff at Syracuse before coming back to OSU as a volunteer coach.

So neither had a wealth of experience in a lead role, where they were the key decision-makers or opinion-providers.

But Gajewski knew them, and he believed in what they could be as coaches.

“I’ve been through a lot with those guys,” Gajewski said. “A lot of hard stuff, a lot of good stuff, a lot of winning. The farther you go, the larger the expectations, it can wear on you at times.”

One of Gajewski’s top coaching skills is his ability to understand people, and to read their emotions. So to help manage his young assistants this year, he has relied on something he picked up while working as a turf specialist at OU more than 20 years ago.

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“I learned this from Bob Stoops a long time ago,” Gajewski said. “The guy was a master at not letting the moment slip away. Enjoy the moment. Enjoy what’s going on out there. You can control a little bit, but really, you can’t. It’s in these kids’ hands.

“If you’ve prepared them and they trust you and they love you, you’re gonna get their very best. So I’m enjoying working with Carrie and Vanessa, and I’m very proud of them.”

While Gajewski has been open about the fact that his decision to hire Eberle likely sparked star left-hander Kelly Maxwell’s decision to transfer out of the program, Gajewski knew he needed to make the best long-term decision for his program. And he believed that was Eberle.

The results don’t disagree.

Rosenberry was the team’s fourth-best pitcher a year ago, but has elevated to a strong No. 2 — something she credits Eberle’s teaching for. And Rosenberry is only No. 2 because she’s behind one of the country’s top pitchers in Lexi Kilfoyl, who has reached a level of dominance she had not yet experienced before this season.

Gajewski told a story about the tension and nerves Eberle was feeling during a difficult first inning for Kilfoyl in the regional final against Michigan last Sunday. It required Eberle to make a visit to the circle to talk to her pitcher — who was surprised to later learn of the angst Eberle was battling.

“Hearing Coach G say that kind of threw me for a loop, because Carrie was the one who calmed me down,” Kilfoyl said. “I think all of us get along with Carrie very well, and having that small age gap, we connect to them a whole lot easier and it’s easier to build a relationship with them, because they've been in our shoes right there with us.”

More: How Oklahoma State softball found comfort in new hitting coach Vanessa Shippy-Fletcher

Gajewski’s move to Shippy-Fletcher also caused some stir in the offseason, mostly because of the timing. The team had already been through the fall season with Cloer, and it was 18 months into learning her unique process.

But Gajewski again determined he needed to make a move that was better for the long-term vision of his team. Shippy-Fletcher had just been promoted onto the staff a few months earlier when the NCAA expanded college softball coaching staffs.

But this was a significant step up at an awkward time.

And with so many newcomers — eight first-year hitters and nine more who had joined the program with Cloer a year earlier — Shippy-Fletcher had a busy winter building a rapport with all the players so she could learn how to help them.

“Working with Shippy has been one of the best things for me as a hitter,” said Godwin, who has put together one of the most productive seasons ever by a Cowgirl freshman with 14 home runs and 48 RBIs. “I think we relate so well because we’re both so competitive, and perfectionists to a certain degree. Sometimes that causes us to butt heads, but in the end, we always find a solution to any problem, and I think she deserves credit on that.

“If you have a problem and you come to her about it, she’s going to stay there until you get it fixed. I went to her for a lot of things throughout the season, and there’s never been a moment where I didn’t feel she had my back.”

Gajewski knew he might face some criticism for his hiring decisions with Shippy-Fletcher and Eberle, but he knew what he saw in them, and his choices are hard to argue through one season.

“In a weird way,” he said, “I’m like a proud dad.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State softball took a big risk with assistant coach changes