I’m not saying that he’s trying to backtrack or anything, but Oklahoma State softball coach Kenny Gajewski seems to be a little more calm with his thoughts on Kelly Maxwell. The former Cowgirl ace pitcher sent shockwaves out of the transfer portal back in August with her announcement that she’s crossing Bedlam lines and moving south to Norman. Obviously that didn’t settle well with the many people, including Gajewski.
“My only disappointment for Kelly,” Gajewski said last month, “is that she went to OU, because now she’s lost everything here that she’s ever done. And as long as I’m here, it’ll be hard for her to come back here. That’s just the way it is.” While somewhat sticking to his guns, on Wednesday to open Oklahoma State’s fall season, Gajewski explained his comments further and tried to take the edge off of what he said in August.
“Yeah, I mean, it hurt,” Gajewski said on Wednesday. “I felt like the only place she could go and lose her legacy here would be OU. I’m not mad at her. She gave us everything.” He also went on to say that there’s a strategical reason why Oklahoma was a bad spot for him to see Maxwell land. “I wish she would’ve gone somewhere else,” he said. “I mean, we’re trying to beat those guys and now we gotta face her? That sucks. But I’m not cheering against her. I don’t wish her one ounce of harm. I don’t wish any of that, but it’s different now. And that’s the only thing. If she was at a different school, it would have been weird, but maybe not different.”
You can watch a thread on his entire Wednesday statement below.
I guess my only real issue with today’s statements is to say that he had a list of Oklahoma people who agree with him and said that his August statement is correct. However, he said that he’s obviously not going to release that list. That’s like me saying that I have a long list of Oklahoma State folks that say his August comments were out of line and lacked respect for the situation that Maxwell was in, the difficulty of her decision, and lacked appreciation of her accomplishments to the program. I’m not going to release that list but I need you to believe me.
It probably would have just been better if Gajewski had just said that he was emotional and probably overreacted a little.
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He just needed to say it stinks, I hated losing her. Myself and other OSU fans struggle because now we have to play against OU and see her in our rivals uniform. She gets that choice and it is out of my hands.
It really is a tough situation. I’d rather not see transfers between in conference rivals, but who are we to decide what another person wants?
It used to happen. The NCAA rules made it tough if not impossible to transfer.
What if you had different goals set for yourself, and you wanted to take a shot at reaching those goals at a different school?
I believe that’s the way it should be.
I’d hate to be on the losing end of transfers between in-state or in-Conference rivals, but the important thing is that it can happen, and it has been a long time coming.
Every school stands a chance to benefit from it. Every student athlete has the ability to do as they please. Time will tell if it’s good or bad for the sport, the school, and the NCAA.
One thing I know for sure is that it’s good for the student athletes to be able to make the decision, whether we see it as right or wrong.