Photo: Matt Brown via CSF Athletics
Cal State Fullerton currently rides a four-year streak of Big West conference championships, just the third time in conference history that a team has recorded a quartet of consecutive league titles. To call the team a perennial postseason contender would be an understatement.
Head coach Kelly Ford enters 2020 in her eighth season leading the program; she signed a contract extension last summer that will keep her in Fullerton long-term. A victor of more than 700 career games, Ford earned her fourth consecutive conference Coach of the Year award during the 2019 season, also a Big West league record. One of the nation’s most consistently-successful coaches, Ford says she’s glad to be a Titan for the long-term.
“I love CSF,” Ford said. “I love our president, I love our [athletic director], I love the environment here. It’s one in a million, so why mess with happy?”
The 2019 regular season was a successful one for the Titans, but ended rather abruptly, with an 0-2 showing in the Los Angeles regional in the NCAA tournament. The quick postseason exit a season ago has added fuel to the fire in the team’s preparation for 2020.
“I thought 2019 was a gritty season for our athletes, and they really fought tooth and nail for that conference championship,” Ford said. “[The postseason exit] is all that the players can talk about, but most importantly, they feel it. That stung; that burned. That’s what is fueling us. And it’s not in the sense of revenge either; it’s just that we know we’re better than that.”
Pitcher Trish Parks – a former Arizona transfer – suffered a concussion early in the 2019 season and went down for the year. That loss surely affected the Titans, but Ford believes it also opened an opportunity for her club to gain some positives: “I honestly think that [Parks] was arguably one of the best pitchers in the country,” Ford noted, adding, “But when she went down, it opened the door for Dani Martinez, and she took the challenge and ran with it.”
“I don’t know if anyone knows this or not, but we’re actually getting Parks back for this season,” Ford continued. “So to have her… and that experience last year made Dani a lot more confident and prepared. [Sophie] Frost is coming back from a very good year and is working her tail off right now. Taylor Dockins just continues to inspire everyone and battle cancer with the most amazing attitude that she has about it. We’re going to see her back on the mound, too – there’s nothing that’s going to keep her off of it.”
On the offensive side of the ball, the Titans have fixed some holes in their lineup from a season ago. “The biggest change is that you’re going to see more speed,” Ford said. “That is something that we were overall lacking last year, and we’ve plugged that spot. We’ve got some speed, some really solid offensive athletes returning… the middle of our order could go with anybody’s middle. We’re feeling really good with the returning experience, and what is really cool is that Caitlin Grimes, our hitting coach, has brought in some new ideas and new thoughts and our players are really turning into offensive students of the game. They’re taking a completely mature approach to hitting, even making adjustments within each other. There’s some new fire that has come in, and our freshmen are just flat-out good… this year, we’ve brought in players that challenge our best players, and that’s crazy.”
When it comes to expectations, Ford has them both for herself and for her team, but not just for on-the-field achievements.
“I think what’s really amazing is that we don’t have to really set an accolade goal, meaning something like win the Big West conference, meaning get to Oklahoma City,” Ford said. “It’s really more that it’s turned into an expectation. We definitely have sat down as a coaching staff and acknowledged statistical improvements that we need to make, but my job, my position out there is really coaching the culture and coaching the expectation and so, if I were to simply put it, we’re going out there to compete every pitch, and if we let that slip, that’s on me.
“There’s a second fold that I would want the athletes walking away from the season feeling proud and feeling like they left it all out on the field, and wearing that Titan shirt with pride. So if you chase those wins and those accolades, that can be pretty empty whether you win, lose, or draw. That’s my opinion as a coach. But, if you along the way take the time to get to know the athletes and really be in the trenches with them on and off the field, and know that they’re having a bad day or knowing that something went down with their family, but knowing that you were there with them to share a pivotal moment in their life… if I know that I’ve done that with my athletes, I look back and go ‘I’m the lucky one’. But there is definitely a hunger from this program to get back to the World Series. It’s been too long. It’s a target, a pressure that I welcome.”
Cal State Fullerton will open the 2020 season at home in their hosted Titan Classic on February 6th.
