May 24—Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso doesn’t know what kind of emotions she’ll be feeling when her team plays what is expected to be their last official game on Marita Hynes Field this weekend.

It’s not just because she can’t be certain that it’s going to be a happy farewell. In each of the last six seasons, the NCAA Super Regionals have simply been a stepping stone for the Sooners to reach their goal of making it to the Women’s College World Series, but that doesn’t mean an upset can’t happen.

Whether that final game comes on Saturday or Sunday, Gasso expects there to be several emotions involved when she coaches her final game in the stadium.

“It just depends on a lot of things,” Gasso said. “It’s bittersweet. I sure am gonna miss it, but at the same time, I can’t wait. It’s like living in a home that you’ve lived in for years and years and years and it’s hard to take all your pictures down and know that your family grew up in this home.”

It’s a stadium that has seen a program rise from something that barely resembled a collegiate sports team to a national powerhouse, winning six national titles with five of those coming in the last decade.

When Gasso first arrived at Oklahoma, the team was practicing at nearby Reaves Park, and getting kicked off the field at 5 p.m. to make room for local slow pitch teams. Before every practice, she would walk around the complex picking up trash that was on the softball fields.

“You would never know we were a collegiate team by the way we were treated when we went over there,” Gasso said. “When I came here, I felt like we went from playing basketball on the blacktop to coming into a real gymnasium.”

Gasso said Title IX played a big role in giving the Sooners an opportunity to finally build their own stadium. With a new, permanent home for softball, the program took off.

The Sooners have a home record of 546-62-1 (.898) in 25 seasons at the stadium, which Gasso appropriately described as “the place where the program was born.”

Gasso said the school will be honoring the stadium’s name sake over the weekend. Marita Hynes has been a permanent figure of Oklahoma softball after serving as a longtime senior administrator for the university and the program’s second ever head coach.

Hynes played a big role in fundraising for the stadium, as well as campaigning for the WCWS to be held in Oklahoma City, where it has remained for every season except one (1996 in Columbus, Ga.). The school named the field after Hynes in 2004.

Hynes hired Gasso and the two have remained very close ever since.

“She’s always been extremely caring,” Gasso said. “She was there after (my son) DJ was born. She was, besides my husband, the first one to hold him. So there’s just always this family connection. I talk to her often. She’s the reason why I’m here.”