This week On Deck with Dobbins sits down with Coach Kelly Ford from California State University Fullerton. Ford is in her seventh season as head coach of the Titans and has lead Cal State Fullerton to four consecutive Big West Conference Championships. Ford has also led CSUF back to the NCAA Tournament in 2016, 2017, and 2018, getting the Titans back to national form. Before coming to Fullerton Ford led JUCO Power Mt San Antonio College. She coached Mt. SAC to four California State Championships (2003, 2005, 2007, 2009) and seven South Coast Conference Championships (2001, 2003-08). Before taking a seat in the Captain’s Chair, Ford spent time as an assistant coach at Fullerton, along with stops at Cal State Northridge and Oklahoma. A Sooner Alum and athlete, Ford graduated from OU in 1992. She also spent two season competing at Central Arizona College winning NJCAA National Championships in both years.
Lee Dobbins: Coach Ford you and your staff have diligently worked to bring Cal State Fullerton Softball back to the form of old. After some leaner years before your arrival, you have put Cal State Fullerton back on the map in Collegiate Softball with three straight Big West Conference Championships and advancing to the NCAA’s in each of those championship years. What have you done particularly to get Titan Softball back on the national scene?
Kelly Ford: Fed the expectation that we want to be in the hunt every year for NCAA’s. Really focused on coaching character and culture vs. chasing W’s. Most importantly if you create an atmosphere where the athletes can build confidence they can be open to being coached. If they don’t have any confidence, it doesn’t matter how good of a coach you are you won’t be able to improve them. Those are a few key principles I have focused on. One other piece is letting my assistant coaches coach and have input. I have surrounded myself with a staff that is better than I in certain areas so I can get better.
Dobbins: Over the last few years recruiting has been a major topic of conversation particularly when it comes to the average (young) age that Prospective Student Athletes are being recruited and making verbal commitments to programs. Legislation has now been initiated restricting contact/offers to PSAs until September 1 of their junior year in high school. Talk a bit about that change in the recruiting dynamic since that legislation has been adopted. Has it slowed the process and made balancing recruiting better? Has the legislation been effective in curving earlier recruiting in any way?
Ford: Philosophically, I think it is a good change for all parties. As it pertains to Cal State Fullerton and my program I see some downsides as we really used to start building the close relationships with the athletes when they came to camp and took advantage of sharing the great things going on at our University. The conversations have now changed to focusing on skillset and coaching at camps which is actually a good thing. I don’t think we will know how it really all shakes out until the athletes that have verballed before the new legislation have phased out. That is when we will really see if the it has equaled the playing field or given it a big slant.
Dobbins: Being in the middle of biggest concentration of softball talent on the planet in Southern California and middle of Pac-12 Country; what have you seen as both challenges and benefits in recruiting to a school like CSUF that falls very much in-between that Mid-Major and Power 5 level institute? What have you and your staff done to carve out your recruiting niche to keep the top recruits in Southern California instead of leaving the state or going to the “bigger” institutes?
Ford: We are so lucky at Cal State Fullerton. I love our location both on the recruiting side and the competing side of things. Recruiting wise we are in the hot bed and just like the Power 5’s we go after players that will make us better, are willing to compete day in and day out for their position and bring the team first mentality to the table. I love being able to drive 30 minutes put a full recruiting day in and be able to go home to my own bed that night. We go after athletes that excel playing in front of their families. Most of our players/parents live within two hours of our campus and with approximately 65% of our games at home it is common that our athlete’s families come to every one of them. Absolutely a selling point for our program. The Big West Conference is unique in every one of our conference opponents is in the State of California except Hawaii, so traveling to games make it easy for us and our families. We also rarely miss classes with our travel schedule which the players appreciate. Competition wise top teams want to play at our place. They love our beautiful facility, have a great chance of hitting good weather and know they will face an incredible line up of opponents. We host the largest Division I tournament held on a college campus, The Judi Garman Tourney. We are able to do this because we have 2 Division I Softball fields on our campus. Tournament time the softball complex is electric! You will often find baseball and softball competing at the same time and since our fields are back to back it is an amazing atmosphere on like game days.
Dobbins: I recently heard a phrase directly referenced to collegiate softball; “The era of the free agent has begun.” This seemingly is referencing the latest NCAA Transfer Legislation that eliminates the permission-to-contact process. The transfer rates in the last five years had seemingly already been at an all-time high. Recently however, it seems the flood gates have opened directly connected with this legislation. What are your thoughts on this legislation and its effect on the collegiate game?
Ford: It is a tough pill to swallow and I think we are all shocked at the ease of putting your name on the portal. We have to roll with the changes and stay ahead of it. I go back to fostering your culture and coaching character and having faith that if you provide a positive student-athlete experience they will want to come back. On the flip side we have had great success with transfers into to Cal State Fullerton and will continue to go after transfers that will fit in character wise and make us better.
Dobbins: The “Point of Emphasis” the last few years from a rules and officiating standpoint have been the obstruction rule (particularly at the catching position) and the enforcement of the players positioning and movements in the batter’s box and leaving the dimensions and confines of it (particularly slappers). What are your thoughts on these two particular points of emphasis the last few years? Are they being enforced accurately and effectively? If not, what needs to change from an enforcement standpoint?
Ford: The obstruction is a good rule in theory and I am always for protecting the players. My only complaint is the subjectivity of the call. I haven’t seen it called consistently across the board and it is tough for the umpires to make that call with a naked eye. The speed of our game makes it difficult. I have heard a lot of talk about how the “slapper” rule has affected our slappers but I have actually seen the players adapt and seem to be a non-issue that may also be because we only have 1 slapper this year. Ask me next year when we have three.