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OU Softball: Oklahoma Coach Patty Gasso Lands National Award

The United States Olympic Committee honored the Sooners' Hall of Fame skipper as its national college coach of the year.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso
Oklahoma coach Patty Gasso / John Hoover / Sooners on SI

BY OU Media Relations

Oklahoma softball head coach Patty Gasso was named United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) College Coach of the Year as announced by the organization Tuesday.

The USOPC Coach of the Year Program honors outstanding contributions of coaches who make a significant impact in their respective sports and National Governing Bodies. Criteria for the awards are predicated on the quality of coaching or service demonstrated by the nominees.

Gasso was also named head coach of the USA Softball Women's National Team in February of this year. She is in her 31st year as head coach of the OU Softball program, touting eight national championships and 17 trips to the Women's College World Series. A National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Hall of Fame inductee, Gasso has won 1,557 games at OU and became the Big 12 Conference's all-time winningest coach in any sport. 

Gasso and the No. 1-ranked Sooners are 42-5 and 16-5 in Southeastern Conference play heading into the final week of the regular season. OU heads to Gainesville to take on No. 7/9 Florida beginning Thursday, May 1, in a three-game series.

For more on the USOPC Coach of the Year program and this honor, click here.

Published
John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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