Fresno State Athletics
The Early Years of Fresno State Softball: Part 2
6/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Softball
June 18, 2009
To view Part 1 click here: http://www.gobulldogs.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/061109aaa.html.
FRESNO, Calif. - When Donna Pickel decided to head north to the University of Oregon to complete her Ph.D., she knew she was making the best step for her professional career but it tore her apart to leave during the first year of Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) competition for the softball team.
She handed the reins for one year to Jan Rintela and Pat Gavello who became the interim coaches in 1978 and led the 'Dogs to a 12-5 overall record and a 10-2 and a first place finish in the NorCal Conference.
"I hated having to leave because having been in the start of it and some of the players that had been in the club were able to continue, but it was a professional decision that I had to go back and finish that PH.D.," Pickel said. "But Pat had been an assistant coach with me for the club team so I knew she would do a great job."
The first-ever game in program history was against Merced College, a doubleheader at the original Bulldog Diamond, which is located adjacent to the South Gym, next to the tennis courts and is now used for Physical Education classes. The 'Dogs would sweep the series with Merced College by scores of 18-1 and 10-0.
The Bulldogs played 10 more games that season and won them all, but since they were all against Junior Colleges they were not counted in the teams overall record after moving up to AIAW.
They advanced to the AIAW Region 8 Playoffs at Sacramento State, dropping games to Nevada and Cal Poly-Pomona.
Four Bulldogs earned First Team All-NorCal honors that season, Rosie Garcia, Susan Lewis, Vernie Miller and Corrina Smart.
The 1978 team set high standards for the program as now 31 years later, a total of 157 Bulldogs have been named to an All-Conference team, 107 have been named All-Region and 55 have been named All-Americans. It also started the streak of NCAA Tournament appearances which is now 28 for the Bulldogs and an NCAA record.
Pickel returned to Fresno in the fall of 1978 to take back the program and prepare for her first year of coaching in 1979. In six years as head coach (1979-85), Pickel posted a 254-115 record for a .688 winning percentage.
She tried to coach both basketball and softball simultaneously but realized that basketball was becoming more of a full-time coaching job and that she couldn't put the time into both and teach.
"The number of games we played went up to over 50 games and although I loved being in athletics, the fall of '78 I coached basketball but I decided that I wasn't going to try to coach two sports so I went only to softball."
Her first season in 1979, the 'Dogs posted an 18-14 record and finished second in the NorCal at 13-3. Pickel's first-ever win at the AIAW level was a 5-1 victory at home vs. Utah State.
The 'Dogs finished second in the NorCal again in 1980 and 1981 and all three years advanced to the AIAW Regionals.
Fresno State hosted the 1980 and 1981 AIAW Region 8 Playoffs in 1980 also earned the programs first-ever win in the postseason, a 3-0 victory over Arizona State.
A big change then came to women's athletics in 1982. The AIAW at the time was the equivalent to the NCAA that existed for the men's sports. The NCAA existed for the first time for women during the 1981-82 season. Both the AIAW and NCAA existed for women the season and after that academic year, the AIAW discontinued sponsorships of national championships and was later legally dissolved. The Bulldogs joined the NCAA that first season.
Fresno State once again hosted a regional in 1982, defeating Pacific 2-0, 1-5 and 4-0 in the best two-out-of-three series, earning a right past the regionals for the first time in school history. The 'Dogs then traveled to the first-ever WCWS hosted by the NCAA where they would drop the opening game to Western Michigan and fight through the consolation bracket to earn wins over Oklahoma State, Nebraska and Arizona State. Fresno State then earned a match with UCLA in the national championship, but fell to the Bruins 2-0.
The Women's College World Series, now held in Oklahoma City, Okla., was held from 1982-87 in Omaha, Neb., and from 1988-89 in Sunnyvale, Calif.
In the 1983 regionals the 'Dogs went 1-2 after winning the conference and were ranked as high as No. 6 in the country.
They returned to Omaha in 1984 to take fifth place with a win over Cal Poly-Pomona, once again ranking among the top teams in the country, at No. 5.
The 1985 season would be the last for Pickel and it was perhaps one of her best. Pickel led the 'Dogs to their fourth conference title and tying their highest ranking in school history at No. 5. They also won a school record 53 games while registering just 15 losses.
Pickel announced during the 1985 season that was going to retire from coaching and go back to full-time teaching at the university.
"When I began my teaching at Fresno State it went from a full-time teaching job to then a half teacher half coach and I realized that I couldn't devote my full time to being a coach and that was where it was going so that is when I announced that I wanted to return to full-time teaching," Pickel added. "I also felt that the program was to the point where it needed to specialize more on just that team and needed a full-time coach that could devote all of their time to the program. I was fortunate that Fresno was able to bring in someone like Margie Wright to take over the program from there."
In her time coaching, Pickel coached two All-Americans in Wende Ward (1982) and Rene Polanco (1984), both second team honorees. She also coached the programs first academic All-American, Barbara Cambria who made the second team in 1985. Along with those honors, Pickel coached Ward to the 1982 northwest region all-district first team, a Honda Award Program Finalist in 1983 and the Fresno State Female Athlete of the Year for the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons.
"Wende was special because she wanted to play, pitch and bat every time," Pickel said. "We also had other pitchers of pretty equal quality so she played third base and she was an awesome third baseman. She could've been an All-American third baseman too if she would've played there and not pitched. And her bat was awesome."
Along with Ward, Pickel coached 14 total all-region selections and 24 all-conference selections in the NorCal and NorPac Conferences. The 1982 team was also the NCAA Statistical Champion in runs scored.
The torch was passed on when Pickel retired at the end of the 1985 season as Fresno State hired new young coach Margie Wright out of Illinois.
What Pickel and the rest of Fresno State, the city of Fresno and the softball community didn't know was that she was building a lasting legacy and tradition as she laid the groundwork for one of the most recognized programs in Division I softball. And that all blossomed with Wright took over for the 1986 season. Check back into www.gobulldogs.com in the coming days for part three into the story.
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