Everything Ashley Chastain Woodard said after South Carolina's season-ending loss in Super Regional

Following a 5-0 loss to UCLA on Sunday, South Carolina head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard spoke to the media as the Gamecocks’ season came to an end. Here’s everything she had to say.

Opening statement

“I just have so much gratitude for the year and for the season and just for everyone that was a part of it. Ending a season is never easy, and you work really hard to play as long as you can. And I just am filled with so much gratitude and so much pride, and I’m just so proud of the program. I’m so proud of the players, and just this first year of laying the foundation of who we’re going to be from here on out. And it was really special. It’s a special team, it’s a special group. And I’m just so thankful, and I have so many people to thank. I thank Coach Tanner for believing in me and trusting me with the program last summer in the transition. I’m so thankful for Jeremiah and his leadership now and everything that he’s pouring into the program and his belief in us. I’m really thankful for Hillary Cox, our sport administrator, who is so invested in us on a daily basis, and really just integral in our success.

“I’m so proud of the staff. I think I have the best staff in the country. We poured hours and hours and hours of work into these players, into this program, and I’m really proud of the work that they did, and just really proud. I am just so proud of the players. And it’s like I said, it’s never easy to end the season, and obviously there’s a ton of heartbreak and disappointment that we didn’t make it to Oklahoma and the World Series, which is where this program belongs 100 percent. It’s where it belongs, and it’s good enough to be there. We have the best fans in the country. And we’re just really proud. We’re really proud of our logo and everything we accomplished this year.

“Hats off to UCLA. They made it tough on us today, and I wish them nothing but the best in the postseason. But I’m grateful to lead this program, really proud of where it’s at. Really excited about the future. When you lay a foundation like this one, you’re really excited for what’s to come.”

How much will this season play into next year? How much does this help in recruiting and moving on up with more success to come?

“Yeah, it means a lot. It means a lot. Obviously, we’re losing a lot of experience if you look at the roster. So it’s an opportunity to really bring in some great players from other places. The portal opened for us last week, and the fact that we were fortunate enough to host this event this weekend, I mean, there were recruits all in the stands all weekend. So I have to believe that it will be a game changer for the quality of players that we’re able to talk to and that we’re in conversation with. So really excited about that. As you guys know, recruiting never stops, and we’re working really hard at it behind the scenes, because we do need a lot of players. If you look at the roster and with what we anticipate the roster limit being for next year, it will be a team full of new faces again in the fall.”

After the loss yesterday, how do you feel the players were able to come into today? Do you feel like they were able to kind of do their best to forget what happened yesterday and try to move on?

“I do. I mean, the result didn’t work in our favor, but I can tell you that we had a lot of conversations about it. I told the broadcasters when I met with them before the game, obviously, we were heartbroken right after the game yesterday. There’s a lot of emotion. We quickly debriefed, and we brought the team back here last night, late, right before bed, and we just kind of talked about who we were and kind of just flushing the game and moving on as quickly as possible.

“Honestly, being transparent, I felt like we did not do a good job of that at Auburn if you go back to the regular season and the rain delay. We all remember that, right? And so I felt like, okay, we learned our lesson once in that scenario, like we didn’t show up that well the next day, the Saturday game at Auburn. So I felt like it was the right thing to have some more conversation about it. And it was great conversation. And I really did feel like this morning, when we showed up to team breakfast, that we had moved on emotionally, but we just didn’t get the job done on the field. I felt like, offensively, we just didn’t have enough production. You can see that from the box score. We didn’t walk enough. We struck out too much. And hats off to Terry and Tinsley, like they had a really great day. And sometimes that happens. And unfortunately, today, it just didn’t go our way at the plate.”

Immediately after the loss, where is your focus? Is it reminiscing on the past or looking to the future?

“Yeah, my focus right now is on the current team with the players downstairs. We owe them that, and I owe them my whole heart, and, you know, just helping them with their emotions right now. I mean, I remember what it’s like as a player for your season to end, and the emotions of that are tough. You cannot anticipate how you feel in that moment. And so my focus is on them today. Obviously we’ll have end of year meetings, traditional end of the year meetings this upcoming week. Just close out everything on the business side of what we’re doing. But the staff and I will quickly move on to focusing on next year’s roster, because we have to, because the portal is already open. There’s a lot of activity going on with that. So I’ll make sure that we give these players and this team all of it deserved, all that they deserve over the next 48-72 hours and making sure that they’re in a good place as they all go their way on the summer. Because they’ll all start different things that they have planned. But we’ll move on quickly to the roster for next year, because we do have a tall task in front of us to build the roster for the fall.”

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As a coach, how do you in real time, compartmentalize the season you’ve had, the expectation that you’ve reset and the great things you’ve done, but also you were really close to taking it one step further?

“It’s hard. I think the older I get, the more experience I have, like I think the game is so much bigger. Our purpose this year was so much bigger, you know, just everything that we did, the success that we had. I mean, it’ll stick with me for a long time that we came short. I can tell you that. I can say that I will hold on to that for a while, but I just really want to evaluate the year, and it’s like, okay, at the end of the day, what are the things that that kept us out of Oklahoma? Like, what are those things and really evaluate that. The staff. and I will have those conversations about, okay, how can we get better? You do your best not to put yourself in this position ever again.

“But yeah, I mean, I think you have to move on in some ways, but you also have to learn from the full year. I have so much pride and so much gratitude for the success that we did have, and I definitely want to celebrate that with my family, you know, my husband is here, Robert, and just being able to celebrate it with the staff, I think, is also really important, because it is a lot of work, and we did have a lot of success, and people really didn’t think we would. So there’s a lot of really great things in that. So it’s hard. You have to balance it all. This profession is really tough. I want to be a really great example to the players and everyone here that you can have it all. You can be it all. So it’ll probably take me through the summer to achieve everything I just said, but we’ll get there before school starts in the fall.”

What’s your biggest takeaway about this team?

“I just love this place so much. In the process of building the team and the wins and the losses, I fell back in love with this place. I’m just really excited for the future. I really am. And I think that the respect that we earned on a national level in softball, I think, is really a big deal for me. And the success that we had in the league. I said from the beginning that I wanted to get the league from the bottom to the middle. I felt like if we could get ourselves up in the middle of the league standings that we have a chance to host. Obviously that came true for us. So I thought that was a huge step in the right direction.

“Obviously, for me, the bright spots are the people. And so, like, I could probably sit here for five hours and talk about individuals, you know, Sam Gress stories and Ari Rodi, Lexi winters, Abby Knight stories, you know, and down the roster. But the great thing about coaching is that you’re able to stay connected with all the people that you coach. I’m excited for the next step in their lives and being a part of those conversations. That’s a huge part of the mentorship that happens behind the scenes of helping them be prepared for the next step in life. So, I mean, I just, I don’t know if I could pick one thing. It’s really all of it. It’s been a dream come true. It’s been wonderful every day to lead the program. I’m going to continue to do my best to lead the program, and so that we’re talking about something different next year.”

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