Leigh Ross was having second thoughts. After the Syracuse softball team’s first fall tournament in 2006, the new head coach wished she had stayed at Bowling Green.

‘I was in shock afterward,’ Ross said. ‘I’m like, ‘What did I do?’ Because this is not what I’m used to. … Just like in shock, want to cry, want to quit. I mean, you can have all these things go through your head that like, ‘I’m not used to this.”

Her new team didn’t have the same work ethic as her former one. During that first year, Ross struggled to win over a group of players upset with a coaching change.

When Ross arrived at Syracuse, she needed to change the culture. The new softball head coach expected to win, but her players didn’t.

‘The attitude when I came was that we were middle of the pack,’ Ross said. ‘And we were OK with being middle of the pack.’

Ross battled through the tough times, though. Now in her fifth year, Ross has Syracuse (24-5, 3-0 Big East) off to its best start in program history. She has changed the culture to match the winning mentality instilled in her from a young age and through multiple stops.

Her success at Syracuse didn’t always look like a possibility, though. At practices, some players would take it easy when no one was looking. They would distract their teammates and sit down during drills. There was complaining at 6 a.m. workouts.

When the team practiced at the Carrier Dome that first year, the batting cages were on the first-floor corridor. The players had to change their shoes to hit on the concrete. To save time, Ross insisted her players run from the turf to the cages.

One day, six players lagged behind. While the rest of the team ran up the steps, they walked. Ross came running up behind them and glared at the players. Some of the younger players realized their mistake and ran. A few continued to walk.

‘The ones that were resisting were kind of like, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to run right now, Coach,” Ross said. ‘Until I said, ‘Let’s go.”

Volunteer assistant Lindsay Wasek was a sophomore when Ross took over. Wasek said the team was divided that year. Some teammates were still concerned with the situation surrounding previous head coach Mary Jo Firnbach, who left Syracuse to take an assistant coaching job at Texas A&M in June 2006.

The players were recruited by Firnbach and came to play for her, so they hesitated to buy into Ross’ plans for the program. Many players from Wasek’s freshman class didn’t end up playing their entire careers at Syracuse.

‘A couple years down the road,’ Wasek said, ‘she really got the program going in the direction she wanted.’

***

Kris Hubbard remembers Ross as a cocky kid who needed direction. At Whiteford High School in Ottawa Lake, Mich., Ross was the ‘hot shot.’ She relished the attention of the opposing crowds as the school’s best player. But Hubbard, her basketball and softball coach, thought she needed to be humbled a bit.

‘We had a few rounds, but I’m hard on them,’ Hubbard said. ‘I made decisions, and she didn’t always like those decisions.’  

During a basketball game her junior year, Ross and a senior teammate crossed signals on a play call. The two yelled back and forth at each other across the court. Hubbard had seen enough and immediately took both players out.

At halftime, Hubbard pulled Ross into the hallway. Poking her finger into Ross’ chest, she asked her, ‘Who do you think you are?’

‘That was the first time I actually heard that,’ Ross said. ‘I was like, ‘I don’t know who I think I am. That’s a really good question.”

The star athlete finally got over herself. Ross said she learned how to win at Whiteford. That came in the form of three softball state championships.

Those lessons served her well as a player at Toledo. During the fall of her freshman year, head coach Cheryl Sprangel asked Ross, a right-handed hitter in high school, to switch to the left side of the plate to take advantage of her speed.

Ross thought she was a good hitter, but she listened to her coach and became a slap hitter.

‘She caught onto that extremely fast,’ Sprangel said. ‘With her speed, all she had to do was hit the ball on the ground, and she could beat it out for a base hit.’

The switch led to an All-American career as an outfielder at Toledo. Ross still holds Mid-American Conference career records for batting average and hits. She was also a key part of the team’s 1989 run to the Women’s College World Series.

Ross said she was willing to do anything to get on the field.

‘Initially, that’s a blow to your ego,’ Ross said. ‘But you let go of that ego and you see the success and you think, ‘OK, whatever. Whatever it takes.”

 ***

Ross never viewed Bowling Green as a steppingstone. As its head coach from 1999 to 2006, she was focused on building her program and preparing her players for success.

Ross bounced ideas off other coaches in the program. She learned how football coach Urban Meyer ticked. She respected how men’s basketball coach Dan Dakich disciplined his players. Women’s basketball coach Curt Miller became a close friend. And she often talked strategy with baseball coach Danny Schmitz, who played Triple-A baseball in the New York Yankees farm system.

‘I think all those people, their No. 1 priority was getting their athletes to be the best they could. Period,’ Ross said. ‘We want to win, but we’re going to do it the right way.’

The softball coach had the same philosophy. And it showed.

Ross left Bowling Green as the winningest coach in school history with a 237-198-2 record. She was the MAC coach of the year in 2001. Ross also led the Falcons to a MAC tournament championship and the NCAA tournament in 2004.

Abby Habicht played for Ross at Bowling Green from 2003 to 2006 and then coached under her at Syracuse for two years.

When Ross played, she would always do one extra repetition in the weight room to push herself. Habicht said that mindset pushed her to work harder.

‘You have that mentality in your mind,’ Habicht said. ‘I’m lifting and, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I have one more rep in me.’ I’m going to try even if I don’t make it.’

Habicht said once Ross got the players who shared her desire to win, it was only a matter of time until she put Syracuse on the map. She was determined to succeed.

‘She’s the Energizer Bunny,’ Habicht said. ‘Get on board, because this is what she’s doing.’

***

Wasek and some other teammates were stuck in the middle. They wanted to support Ross, but they saw their friends resisting change.

Eventually, the others left. And in the fall of 2008, Wasek and the rest of the seniors went to work. There was no more complaining at 6 a.m. workouts. The seniors didn’t take shortcuts.

‘The mentality turned to, ‘We will do whatever it takes to win. We’re going to work our butts off,” Ross said.

Syracuse went 30-21 that spring after two straight losing seasons. The seniors passed their work ethic onto the underclassmen on that team, like this season’s ace, Jenna Caira.

Ross called Caira almost every Tuesday while she was in Switzerland for her last two years of high school. That commitment and Ross’ vision to make Syracuse softball a national contender sold Caira on the program.

The program moved closer to that goal last season. Before the Big East tournament in Louisville, Ky., Ross made a highlight video featuring memorable plays from practices and games. Caira said it gave the players confidence.

And the Orange won three games in three days to win the Big East tournament.

‘I think that was the first time the program learned how to win,’ Ross said. ‘Now we know how to win, and we want more. Be greedy now.’

Caira said the team carried its confidence into this year. And that work ethic led to the program’s first national ranking in program history.

Other coaches are taking notice. DePaul head coach Eugene Lenti saw Ross play at Toledo and coached against her during her career at Bowling Green. Lenti said he knew Syracuse would improve because of Ross’ competitive nature.

‘I expect Syracuse to be a contender for the Big East regular-season and postseason title every year,’ Lenti said. ‘A team that’s going to qualify for the NCAA tournament and make some noise.’

For Ross, ‘middle of the pack’ has become ‘front of the pack.’ And she anticipates that to continue.

‘I’m expecting us to stay in front of the pack,’ Ross said. ‘That’s where we need to stay is in that top of the pack.’

rjgery@syr.edu

 

Published on March 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Ryne: rjgery@syr.edu