Gajewski, Cowgirl Softball Previews 2023 Season

Oklahoma State softball head coach Kenny Gajewski and select Cowgirl softball student-athletes met with members of the media to catch up on the state of the program and preview the 2023 season.

Video of Coach Gajewski's time at the podium is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmixxZx6VTs

The 2023 Oklahoma State softball media guide is available here: https://okla.st/3YoeHyE

Head Coach Kenny Gajewski
Opening Statement:
"We've been back now, I believe we reported back January 11 or 12. We reported back very, very well. Probably the best return to practice of any of my time here. We made that important, we talked to them about what the expectations were. I think you can probably put a little bit of stuff on the fact that we probably have the deepest team we've ever had, and people want to play. They came here to play."

On opening the season in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico:
"It's an exciting trip. Good teams. It's the first time we've taken our team on a trip like this, so I'm thrilled about that. We're going to go directly to Clearwater [Fla.] for I think probably the best tournament of the year until we get to postseason play."

On the team motto:
"Their motto is 'All One.' That's their motto and I love it. I think it encapsulates the clarity that we're trying to have. It encapsulates everything that they want to accomplish and I'm excited to see what this team can do."

On the pressures of being ranked top five preseason:
"I think there is probably some pressure there. I think these kids are normal. They're regular people, you know. I try to encourage them to not get caught up in that stuff. We haven't even talked about it. I've never had one conversation about the rankings. I really don't seek any of that stuff out because as much good as you can find, you can find stuff you don't want to find and so I just try to stay away and I try to relay that message to them."

On managing expectations heading into the season:
"My job is to try to put them in the best positions. Our coaching staff's job is to put them in the best positions each day to win. Period. That's my expectation is that, with our staff, we put them in the best spot to be the best version of them each day. Do I think that this team is really good? I do. Is this a World Series team? It is. It's talented. So, now it's up to them to figure out how they're going to stay together, keep each other accountable and lead this team. It's their team. I'm just a placeholder here… It will always be their program. I'm just a small piece of that. So, I'm going to get out of their way and just try to make sure they're getting clear information, and then they can go try to be the best."

On the pitching rotation:
"This is the best staff we've had here on paper for sure. Last year's staff was pretty dang good. Look at Kelly [Maxwell], Miranda [Elish] and Morgan [Day]. It turned out to be really good, so this group has to exceed that for me to call them the best staff we've ever had. They have the talent, they have a really good coach, and they have a team around them that's going to help them."

On his first impressions of freshman Tallen Edwards:
"She just can play. She's not afraid of anything. She grew up with a tough dad. She grew up with a tough mom… She was the little kid who got thrown around. She got dragged to every practice, every game. She was in every little ballpark running around probably beating every little kid at every game they wanted to ever play. She's just ruthless. She's relentless. Does she need to grow up? Yes, she's a young kid. She'll mature here and she's doing that. From day one, she wasn't going to let me not have her in the starting lineup. She was going to make sure of that… I'm not shocked. I didn't know where she'd play, but I thought she'd most likely play."

On Kelly Maxwell's leadership and development:
"She's been workman-like. We gave her some time off to start the year after having a long year, playing on the national team and having a great summer. I think she's going to make it really hard on them to not have her on that team. So, she's doing some great stuff. Probably the most impressive thing, though, is just the teammate she is. She's crazy. She's so quiet, but this pitching staff… They're like the tightest group of people. And they're competing for innings in the most selfish position on any softball team… I somehow have these amazing kids and I'm lucky. They just pull for each other. Kelly's out there coaching them and just talking to them. Grabbing Kyra [Aycock] and pulling her along, reminding Ivy [Rosenberry] that she's really good, and telling Lexi [Kilfoyl], 'Hey, you don't have to do it all. We can be really good together.' And that's what Kelly is and what she brings and really makes her an elite person."

P Kelly Maxwell
On team chemistry:
"It's very different. We have a lot of new faces but I think we mesh really well together. I've never been a part of a team that's closer off the field than it is on the field, so we need to use that to our advantage."

On managing expectations:
"Definitely just need to stay true to ourselves. Being able to help those new faces, welcoming them into our program, setting that standard of how things are done. It starts with the details, the little things. I think that's what's going to carry us."

On the experience of the team
"I think experience we can use to our advantage in the postseason because not a lot of the newer faces and younger kids know what that's like and it's a little different. Being able to return so many of us that have been on that stage is awesome."

SS Kiley Naomi
On team chemistry
"We had a rough start last year and the internal stuff that was going on, not to get any deeper than that. I think we've already built a connection that we've never had before and that connection is going to be really important if I want to do what I want to do at the end of the season and just helping my team win and getting as many hits as I can to help the team."

On the dynamic of the infield:
She [Sydney Pennington] was a role model for me. She was at short stop, she helped coach me up. Having her to my left and Madi Sue [Montgomery] my freshman year. Those were my two models for me that I looked up to and not having them it's a little bit different, so I feel like I took the role of them trying to coach up Megan [Bloodworth] and Rachel [Becker]."

OF Chyenne Factor
On Tallen Edwards' development:
"She's new out there, you can kind of tell a little bit, she's really young. But she's doing a good job, she's really athletic and she'll figure it out, I'm not worried about that. She's learning every day, it's really hard, especially when you should be a senior in high school. Like, this is really hard, college is hard, it's a completely different level. She's doing a good job and I'm excited to play with her this season."

On Katelynn Carwile:
"In the outfield, she's doing really good. She reads the ball well, she has a strong arm so she's really been cementing herself out there. She's going to do really good this season."

P Lexi Kilfoyl
On the Oklahoma State coaching staff:
"It's completely different, they're up front and honest with you about everything. They tell you what you need to work on, there's no secrets. You ask them a question and they're going to be straight up, which is awesome because that helps us, as players, improve. They're going to tell us what we need to work on, and we know those are the things we need to do in order to start. It's definitely different, that [depth chart] whiteboard, I've never seen that anywhere else, but it honestly puts it into perspective, and it's motivating too. You can see who's out there and who you have to beat, essentially, and it makes everyone better at the end of the day. Whether you're starting and you're trying to stay in that spot or someone underneath you is trying to fight for that spot."

On what led to her to transfer to Oklahoma State:
"That was one of the things I was looking for, I wanted to go somewhere where the pitching staff was already good. Obviously, Kelly [Maxwell] was really good last year, and that was intriguing to me because I didn't want to go somewhere and throw my arm off. I knew that it's hard to win a national championship with just one pitcher, so I knew I wanted to go somewhere that had a top-notch pitching coach, top-notch starters and honestly it was a perfect match."

Rachel Becker
On why she chose Oklahoma State:
"Honestly what drew me to Oklahoma State was knowing how successful they've been here with Coach Gajewski and watching them compete at the World Series really made me feel like that was something I wanted to be a part of. Also, coming on campus for my visit, I just got a feeling that I knew I needed to be here. The coaching style and the people that I met here I knew I would really get along with and connect with."

On her transition to second base:
"I actually really like playing second base a lot, I've actually never played there before. So, coming into this season and this team I knew I was going to have to compete for a spot anywhere on the field, no matter if it was shortstop, left-field, second base, I knew I was going to have to compete for it. I really liked moving over to the right side, it's a different angle, different cuts, really everything but I felt really comfortable there. I think it's going to go really well."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Rachel Becker

Katelynn Carwile

Tallen Edwards

Chyenne Factor

Lexi Kilfoyl

Kelly Maxwell

Kiley Naomi

Sydney Pennington

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