Among the first things Mary Kay Amicone did when she established BYU's softball program in 1999 was to schedule Arizona. It didn't make any sense, but she did it anyway.
The Cougars' only link to big-time softball was that their best pitcher, Meghann Pricer, had played sparingly at Arizona in 1998 and 1999 before transferring to BYU.
In Tucson, she had lost her job to Jennie Finch.
So when the first-year Cougars arrived at Hillenbrand Stadium on March 11, 2000, UA coach Mike Candrea showed some mercy. He started his No. 2 pitcher, Becky Lemke. She pitched a no-hitter and struck out 19.
The problem for BYU was that it was a doubleheader. Candrea used Finch in the second game. She pitched a two-hitter, hit a home run, struck out 15 and Arizona swept the Cougars by a cumulative 12-0.
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Now, a decade later, the Cougars are all grown up. Amicone resigned in 2002, and her replacement, Gordon Eakin, has been terrific. This is the Cougars' sixth straight appearance in the NCAA tournament and nobody, especially Arizona, especially with a berth in the Women's College World Series at stake, holds back their No. 1 pitcher against BYU.
The growth of college softball has been dazzling. It's no longer "who's good?" It's "who isn't good?"
"Ten to 15 years ago, there was definitely an upper echelon," Candrea says. "In the old days it was Arizona and UCLA. Everyone else could play for third, fourth and fifth place. But now there are 20 to 25 formidable teams."
The 10-year cycle in which BYU evolved from beginner to powerhouse is typical of NCAA softball. Ten years ago, coinciding with BYU's first season, Arizona won its NCAA regional games by a cumulative 36-0. The year before that it was 48-5.
Last week the Wildcats squirmed for 12 I-can't-bear-to-look innings before they were able to subdue Hofstra. Nobody called it a fluke. Candrea called it one of the "greatest moments" in UA softball history.
And this is a program that has won eight national championships.
Of course, the man most responsible for this is Candrea himself. Everyone in the game looked at the Arizona model and wanted a piece of it: a new stadium, a series of sellouts, a national identity, a powerful recruiting base and a reputation as a winner.
"I think USA Softball and coach Candrea have done a remarkable job in making softball a destination for young girls instead of just a fun thing to do," says BYU's Eakin. "It has really grown and prospered."
Indeed, this is serious business now; ESPN will televise more than 40 hours of playoff softball.
When Candrea arrived at Arizona from Central Arizona College in 1986, he grew softball into a serious business.
The Wildcats played at Gittings Field. It had a temporary outfield fence, small bleachers that could seat maybe 75, and it was also used for intramural field hockey.
"We stopped our PE classes at 3:30 so that Mike's team could practice," remembers Mary Roby, retired after serving as the UA's associate athletic director for women's sports. "Home plate at Gittings Field was approximately where center field is now at Hillenbrand. It was so close to the swimming pool that overthrows would go into the water. We had to put up some netting."
And now the UA annually spends almost six times what Roby remembers as a $60,000 operating budget during Candrea's early days. In 2009, Arizona spent $335,292 for its softball operating budget. Others, who have followed Candrea's lead, spend more. Washington, the defending national champion, spent $484, 263 on its softball program last year. Florida spent $480,047 and scuffling Pac-10 also-ran Oregon State spent $370,521.
BYU had a more modest operating budget for softball last year, $242,016, but there's nothing modest about the Cougar program. They schedule as aggressively as they did during Amicone's inaugural season; BYU this year played Top 25 teams Georgia Tech, Washington, Texas A&M, Texas, Arizona State, Stanford and Arizona.
The Cougars have gone a cumulative 4-5 against that killer schedule.
By comparison, in the 11th year of Arizona's softball program, 1984, the Wildcats went 28-16, and a year later fired coach Paula Noel, who had been a U.S. national team player after a standout career at Arizona State.
Given a second chance, Arizona again hired a Sun Devil, Candrea. He went 42-18 in his second season and was swept by ASU in his first NCAA regional. It was the last time an Arizona team he was actively coaching failed to reach the Women's College World Series.
It is The Streak in all of softball. It is also one that the superstitious Candrea doesn't openly discuss.
"We don't talk about it; we don't think about it," he says. "It's what have you done lately."
This time, this year, beating BYU would be something to talk about.
Contact Greg Hansen at 573-4362 ghansen@azstarnet.com
