OU Softball: Oklahoma Coach Patty Gasso Gets Emotional About Love's Field Opening Weekend

Patty Gasso was asked her thoughts Tuesday on finally moving into palatial Love’s Field.

Sitting the interview/team/coaches/trophy/general purpose room at Marita Hynes Field, she had a lot of difficulty in summing it all up.

“I don’t know what to tell you about Love’s Field, because it’s still a dream,” Gasso said. “Until the first pitch is thrown is when I will really pinch myself.”

OU plays Miami-OH at 2 p.m. Friday in the first game of the OU Tournament. It will be an historic scene.

At a pricetag somewhere between $42 million and $48 million, Love’s Field will represent the very best of collegiate softball facilities, and Gasso, for one, can’t wait to “make a right turn instead of a left” as she changes addresses for the first time in 30 years.

But don’t misunderstand. Gasso’s going to miss Marita Hynes Field — or at least all the amazing memories she and her players have made there over the years.

“There's so many memories here that I can't even start,” she said. “We built championships here.”

Gasso got choked up when she talked about Marita Hynes herself, the former coach and athletic administrator who hired her and eventually upgraded the facilities from dusty old Reaves Park across the street to the current stadium. She got choked up when thinking about the countless players who contributed to OU and to the sport itself, especially those on the 2000 team, who won the program’s first national championship, and those who played at Reaves Park where the dugout bench wasn’t even big enough to fit the full team and some had to sit outside on the bleachers.

She got choked up when thinking about her two sons getting their coaching career started right there where she sat.

But she fought off the emotions and focused on bringing the past together with the future while still competing in the present.

“I want to honor those that came even before me,” she said. “Because they played over at Reaves and they got this thing started.”

It won’t be hard to do. Although Love’s Field isn’t quite finished yet — there are lots of finishing touches, such as player and team areas, that are still under construction, and that construction will continue over the next few months — Gasso seems like a kid at Christmas.

“The amenities are above and beyond what anybody else in America has,” she said.

“Thirty years. It’s time to move into a mansion. We’ve been living down on the Eastside. It’s time to move into a mansion.

“I’ll probably have a lot more words for you Friday night.”

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