The Shortstop Theory: Why Oklahoma Keeps Recruiting Athletes, Not Positions

There is a temptation, whenever Oklahoma lands another highly regarded recruit, to look at the player’s position and immediately start wondering where she will fit on the field.

Shortstop.

Third base.

Second base.

Outfield.

Catcher.

We tend to think about recruiting in those terms because, eventually, somebody has to play those positions.

But maybe that isn’t how Oklahoma is looking at it.

Maybe Patty Gasso isn’t recruiting shortstops because she needs more shortstops.

Maybe she’s recruiting shortstops because shortstop is one of the best places in softball to find an elite athlete.

And the recent commitments of Kate McCartney and Gia Ryan are another reason to pay attention to that philosophy.

The more you look at the way Oklahoma has built its roster over the years, the more obvious the idea becomes: The Sooners aren’t necessarily recruiting players for the positions they play in high school.

They’re recruiting them for what those positions reveal about the athlete.

That’s an important distinction.

Because the best recruiters aren’t simply asking, Where does this player play?

They’re asking a much more important question:

What can this player become?

And few positions answer that question better than shortstop.

Shortstop Is a Filter for Athleticism

Think about what a shortstop is asked to do.

She has to have enough lateral quickness to cover ground.

She needs body control.

She needs the hands to handle difficult hops.

She needs arm strength to make throws from multiple angles.

She has to process the game quickly.

She needs range.

She needs instincts.

She needs to be comfortable moving backward, laterally and toward the ball.

And she has to do all of that while possessing enough offensive ability to keep herself in the lineup.

That’s a pretty good athletic résumé.

Now take that athlete and move her somewhere else.

Suddenly, the skill set can become extremely interesting.

A shortstop with elite arm strength might become an outstanding third baseman.

A shortstop with exceptional speed might become an elite center fielder.

A shortstop with quick hands and great receiving ability could potentially develop into a middle infielder at the highest level.

A shortstop who grows into more power could become a corner player without losing the athleticism that made her attractive in the first place.

The position is the starting point.

It isn’t necessarily the destination.

That’s where recruiting gets really interesting.

The High School Position Can Be Misleading

One of the biggest mistakes in recruiting would be to look at a teenager and assume the position she plays today is the position she will play four years from now.

The physical development that occurs between high school and college can completely change that equation.

A player gets stronger.

She gets faster.

Her body changes.

Her arm develops.

Her offensive game evolves.

Her defensive instincts improve.

Suddenly, the player who arrived on campus as a shortstop might become something entirely different.

That’s why the label matters less than the underlying athletic traits.

And Oklahoma has consistently operated in an environment where versatility isn’t merely a luxury.

It’s an advantage.

At Oklahoma, you’re competing for championships.

That means roster construction can’t simply be about collecting nine players who are good at one particular thing.

You need athletes who can give you options.

You need players who can move around the field without their value disappearing.

You need players who can adapt when the lineup changes, when injuries happen, when matchups dictate a different defensive alignment or when a freshman arrives on campus and changes the equation.

That starts with recruiting players who have room to grow.

And shortstop is an excellent place to find them.

McCartney and Ryan Fit the Bigger Picture

That’s what makes the McCartney and Ryan commitments interesting beyond the recruiting headlines.

The easy story is that Oklahoma just added more talented players.

The more compelling story is why Oklahoma may have wanted them in the first place.

If you are evaluating a young player based on her current position, you’re evaluating what she is.

If you’re evaluating her based on the athletic demands of her position, you’re evaluating what she could become.

That’s a completely different approach.

And it gives a coaching staff considerably more flexibility.

You don’t have to know today whether a recruit will eventually be your shortstop.

You have to know that she possesses the athletic foundation to become a difference-maker somewhere.

That’s a much bigger recruiting pool.

And it is one that can be particularly valuable at Oklahoma because the Sooners have the resources, coaching and player-development infrastructure to take an already talented athlete and expand her game.

The position she played at 17 doesn’t have to define the player she becomes at 21.

This Is Bigger Than Shortstop

There is an even bigger lesson here for evaluating softball recruiting.

When fans look at a recruiting class, they naturally want to assign positions.

Who is the next shortstop?

Who replaces the third baseman?

Who plays center field?

Who catches?

Those are legitimate questions.

But they can also cause us to miss what coaches are actually seeing.

A recruiting class isn’t necessarily a collection of positions.

It’s a collection of skill sets.

And some skill sets translate better than others.

Speed translates.

Arm strength translates.

Hand-eye coordination translates.

Defensive range translates.

Bat speed translates.

Instincts translate.

Versatility translates.

Those are the traits that give a coaching staff options.

And options are incredibly valuable at the highest level of college softball.

That’s why I think the shortstop position deserves to be viewed differently.

It isn’t simply one of the six defensive positions on the diamond.

It can be a talent filter.

If a young player can handle shortstop at a high level, she has already demonstrated a combination of athletic traits that can potentially make her valuable somewhere else.

That doesn’t mean every shortstop will become an elite college player.

It doesn’t mean every shortstop should be moved.

And it certainly doesn’t mean shortstop is the only position that produces great athletes.

It means that the position itself demands enough transferable athletic qualities that it can be an extremely useful place to look for future stars.

The Best Recruit May Not Be the Best Fit on Day One

This is where elite recruiting separates itself from roster filling.

Roster filling asks:

What do we need right now?

Elite recruiting asks:

What might we need two, three or four years from now—and which athletes can give us the most possibilities?

Those are different questions.

And the second question requires patience.

A recruit might arrive on campus and not immediately play the position she played throughout high school.

That doesn’t mean the recruiting evaluation was wrong.

It may mean the evaluation was broader than the position.

Maybe the coaching staff saw an arm that could play third.

Maybe it saw speed that could transform the outfield.

Maybe it saw a bat that could eventually become a middle-of-the-order weapon.

Maybe it simply saw an athlete capable of playing multiple positions at an elite level.

That’s the real value.

You’re not recruiting a shortstop.

You’re recruiting the athlete who happens to play shortstop.

And that distinction can change the entire way you build a roster.

The Oklahoma Way?

This is also why I don’t think the McCartney and Ryan commitments should be viewed only through the lens of Oklahoma’s recruiting success.

The more interesting question is what they tell us about the philosophy behind that success.

Because if Oklahoma is consistently identifying high-level athletes at shortstop and then allowing those players’ eventual positions to be determined by development, roster needs and opportunity, that’s not accidental roster construction.

That’s a philosophy.

And it is one that makes a lot of sense.

The best teams don’t necessarily have the most players at every position.

They have the most answers.

And recruiting athletes instead of positions creates more answers.

That may be the real secret behind Oklahoma’s continued ability to reload.

Not every recruit has to arrive with a permanent position attached to her name.

She just needs the athletic ability, competitive makeup and skill set to eventually give the coaching staff somewhere to put her.

That’s why shortstop may be the most interesting position in softball recruiting.

Not because every shortstop is destined to remain a shortstop.

But because the position demands so many of the traits that make an elite softball player valuable anywhere on the field.

So when Oklahoma signs another shortstop, maybe the first question shouldn’t be:

“Who is she going to replace at short?”

Maybe it should be:

“What else could she become?”

That’s the question elite recruiting is really about.

And if Oklahoma has figured out how to consistently identify those answers before everyone else does, the position listed next to a recruit’s name might be considerably less important than the athlete standing underneath it.