THE TRANSFER PORTAL, which drastically altered the foundation of college sports by facilitating the movement of players from school to school, will celebrate its fourth anniversary in October. But the man in charge of leading what is perhaps the premier destination for softball players seeking a second (or third) home still doesn’t know how to get on the actual website to see who’s available.
“I don’t have a login,” Oklahoma State coach Kenny Gajewski admitted during a recent interview. “I don’t ever go on there.”
Granted, there are assistants on staff who are more technologically savvy. Nonetheless, he said, they don’t spend every day online “trying to chase that thing down.”
Instead, he takes an old-school approach, keeping an ear to the ground for potential targets. The softball community is relatively small and well connected. And more often than not, before anyone noteworthy enters the portal, he’ll hear about it first from his players, who might know the would-be transfer from travel ball, recruiting showcases or through a friend of a friend.
“Honestly,” Gajewski said, “people can’t keep their mouths shut.”
That’s how it happened last fall when he started hearing rumblings about a transfer who, if the rumors were true, had the ability to change the landscape of the 2022 season.
If Miranda Elish was returning to college softball for one final season, Gajewski wondered, where would she land?
His gut reaction was one of self-preservation: “I don’t want to see her in our conference.”
Elish was a dominant pitcher who was also a threat at the plate. The No. 1-ranked recruit in 2017, she went 49-2 in her first two seasons at Oregon, earning All-American honors as a sophomore before transferring to Texas, where she won National Player of the Year during the shortened 2020 season, posting a 1.58 ERA and a batting average of .370 as a senior.
But rather than return for a fifth year, she hung up her cleats in 2021, packed her bags and moved to Birmingham, Alabama,…
Source : espn
