Today, we have an interview with David Satcher, a high school football coach and the father of Grand Canyon’s Alina Satcher. Read his answers to learn more about college softball.
Note: Responses were edited for clarity
When and why did Alina first get into softball?
Funny story. When Alina was 8, she won an elementary school field day softball throw for her class. In our school district, that meant she competed at the field day against other 8-year-olds at the district field day. Pearland, where we
lived at the time, is a hotbed for softball talent in Texas. She won the contest, and afterward, the HS softball coach asked what local team she played for, and she said she didn’t play ball. Not long afterward, she was on a local league softball team. Unbeknownst to our family, Pearland softball starts at 4 years old in 6U. We had no idea, and everyone asked why we waited to start her so late. Heck, we didn’t know anything about softball then. The Pearland Dads club does a great job for both softball/baseball in growing the game of both softball and baseball and producing a ton of talent.
When did you know that she could turn softball into a long-term endeavor?
I think it was in 14u when her mother told me about the coaches watching her that it was becoming a surreal reality. Alina had been recruited at various times by different travel ball organizations along the way, which was already crazy. Each time we seemed to move on to bigger and better teams/players we had never seen before. We got a text from a travel coach when she was in 14u that such and such college was going to offer her during the junior year sequence is when it really hit home. Like wow!
Obviously, Alina could have gone farther from home, but Phoenix is still a long way from Houston, so what has that been like in terms of seeing her/going to games?
Luckily, maybe unluckily, for Alina, as her dad is a football coach, that sometimes means you have to pick up and move to another town for jobs. Alina attended 5 different school districts before graduating from high school. So for her, the moving part wasn’t really that big an obstacle. What we found out over the recruiting process was how important airports are to the proximity of the school, and ESPN+ is a huge deal-maker in recruiting. At GCU, the airport is 15 minutes from the campus and is served by both airports in Houston. Alina visited some schools that were nice, but the airport situation seemed a bit much. Ex: She visited a Big 10 school, got to walk on the field before a big football game, loved the campus and the coaches, etc. Issue- it sits between two airports that are both a minimum of two hours away, and no ESPN+. And it snows in the Fall, lol. Probably the best selling point for us was being able to watch her on TV if we couldn’t be there in person. We usually catch 12-15 games a year, mostly early tournament games with multiple schools over a few days. We’ve really only missed 5 games in her 3 years, and it’s because they went to a tourney in Long Beach as a freshman, and the games weren’t televised.
What is your favorite softball memory with Alina?
Wow, there are so many. From pitching in a regional as a freshman and striking out an All-American to her first collegiate HR vs a SEC team at home that went to the WCWS that year to beating a PAC-12 signee in her last high school playoff series with a two-hit shutout, she’s had a ton of memorable moments on the field. But honestly, my biggest moment is something she did off the field during the Covid season her freshman year. Our season, like everyone else, got cut short, and our two seniors that year were not going to be able to have their senior night tradition. She and I were watching SC with Scott Van Pelt at the time, and he was doing the Senior night tributes for kids across the country. Alina took it upon herself to send in the pictures, and luckily, on the last show he did with the theme night, our two seniors were right there in the middle of the huge screen to be seen by everyone who watched that evening. She really had a strong bond with those young ladies, as they took her in as a freshman, and it was her special way of thanking them. The empathy she showed really meant that she understood there is more to this game than just winning/losing, etc. The friendships and memories you make along the way are priceless. I could not have been prouder.
What has this season of collegiate ball been like for you, watching her grow with a team like Grand Canyon?
This is her junior year, and she’s been at GCU this entire time. For some, it could be frustrating to not be the star they were in their younger years, but I think of it as continuing to get better against the best competition. She’s playing on a top 25 team in the country. GCU has some really good players! She loves the school and loves the team, and that’s what is most important to us. She’s grown so much since her first year. Not just on the field, but in the classroom, and in the dorm room (she cooks a bunch). She’ll actually graduate this summer and begin her master’s classes in the Fall. We would not trade this experience/ride for anything. It’s been a joy to watch her grow into such a beautiful young woman over the last few years.
What do you enjoy watching in the game of college softball, and what differences do you notice compared to high school?
The college game is an amazing group of talented young ladies who perform at such a high level. Literally every night, there’s a play on SportsCenter now of an amazing catch, dive, throw, etc. Watching my daughter grow up with many of these young ladies throughout the travel ball, I was always taken aback at how truly athletic they are, even from a young age. One of Alina’s first travel ball teams, a very local group, probably had 8-10 D1 softball players on it. Conversely, high school ball is great because you get to spend time with friends and family you’ve known growing up, but it can get a bit slow after you’ve spent the entire Fall playing other D1 prospects. Not every high school in Texas has a ton of kids that play select sports, i.e., baseball, softball, tennis, golf, etc. Most of my daughter’s district games through 4 years were over after 3 innings by run rule. Maybe 7-8 games were competitive in a 4-year span during the district season. Now, playoffs are a different story. During the 3 years, minus Covid her freshman year, you were going to have to beat a minimum of 4 D1 pitchers in the Houston area to advance to the State Semifinals. And not mid-majors, SEC, PAC12, ACC, Big 12, etc. Literally the Region of Doom.
Watching Mountain West play for the first time this year, what do you notice about the quality of teams and level of competition? Which programs are standing out to you as an observer?
We knew coming into this season, the league was going to be better top to bottom. We’ve played a few, starting with Alina’s freshman year, against Boise, NM, and SD State, including SD State again in the UCLA Regional. Played Utah State and UNLV last year. Super competitive games. Taking nothing away from the WAC, but I think we knew we may take some losses during conference this year, and could still be a better team than last year. Nevada has been really strong this year, and we match up with them this weekend. They need a good showing if the MW wants to be a 2 bid conference. I think we’ve seen some “upsets” early in the conference that seem to have kept the pack together. It will be really interesting to see how this shakes out.
For a casual or new fan of college softball, what should people look for? What positions are the most important and why?
For a new or casual fan, the thing you will notice is how extremely athletic these young ladies really are. I was a small college football player and at one time thought I was a good athlete, lol. But after watching Alina grow up with all these kids and watching them develop, most had passed me by the time there was 14u. The outfielders will make diving catches that you only thought possible in MLB. The reaction time to make plays on the infield is something you can not believe until you see it happen. Pitchers are definitely the stars, but you get a true feeling of how good they are when watching them play defense. If you go to a live game, go to the bullpen and watch the pitchers warm up. You’ll get a true feeling of the velocity and spin these girls create with a softball, the likes of which is sometimes like watching a good ping pong player spin it.
Based on your experiences, how early does the recruiting process begin for colleges looking to add high school players? How would you describe the recruiting process both in high school and in the transfer portal?
From our personal experience, recruiting started way earlier than I expected. In Alina’s 8th-grade year, she was having P4 school sitting behind home plate watching her pitch. It began in the Fall of 8th grade, and my wife would take her to tourneys on the weekend and then tell me all the coaches who were watching. I really didn’t believe it until I went to the last tourney of the fall. I’m a Texas HS football coach, so we don’t get time off during the season. I stepped behind home plate for Alina’s first game pitching, and there were no fewer than a dozen P4 coaches behind home plate. Faces I recognized from TV games. It was definitely humbling and surreal. Now, remember this was the time when a certain SEC school had gotten two 7th graders to commit. It was the beginning of a change to the recruiting rules. We had a few friends who committed as 8th graders that Fall before the big rules change. The rules stopped that contact until Sept. 1 of their junior year. Alina kept receiving mail from P4 schools, but it was definitely less after the change. Then Covid and the transfer portal opened, and it killed recruiting for most of the ’22 and ’23 classes. With super seniors receiving an extra year and the bigger schools able to acquire proven college talent from mid-majors, the need for incoming high school players has lessened. The same has transpired across other collegiate sports, especially football. Alina received a lot of attention, mainly from Big 10 schools but also from some other p4’s, including calls and emails on Sept.1. Some schools she was really excited about lost their head coaches before the official/unofficial visits took place, and some after, smh. She received one call on Sept. 1 and then never heard from them again. It was a roller coaster with ups and downs, but she really found a great place at GCU. We could not be happier with her time there.
For the general college sports fan, softball might be more under the radar or niche compared to football or basketball. What is something the sport already does that is helping it gain popularity, and what’s one thing they could do to help the sport grow?
The sport does a great job of getting its kids on TV for sure. Also, if you’ve ever been to the WCWS, they put on a tremendous show in and out of the stadium. They normally host a travel league tourney in OKC that week to get as many kiddos to the games as possible, but it also draws dads like me into their arena. I had no attachment to softball before Alina started playing, as a lot of dads don’t either. The atmosphere there is awesome, and the area outside the stadium puts on such a great show for the kids that they all want to come back. I grew up an LSU football fan, so when Alina wanted to watch softball on TV, we naturally only watched LSU to start. At the time, they were WCWS participants behind two great pitchers, Allie Walljasper and Carly Hoover. Also, little known at the time, Maribeth Gorsuch, who would later recruit Alina to play at GCU. Those first couple of calls/texts with MB were definite fangirl moments for our daughter. So we got tickets and went to see LSU in the World Series. It was a fantastic trip. The sport has really grown a ton. The Stanford/Cal game last year in the football stadium had like 12-13k people. GCU had their biggest crowd ever this year vs Oklahoma State. ESPN+ shows tons of games from across the country that are easy to access and show a ton of different schools. I’m not sure I could name anything more than they are doing now to help the game grow. They have expanded their “pro” league, and it seems that college softball is at an all-time high. From what I remember, the girls outpaced the boys in viewership at their respective World Series the last two years. On a personal note, the thing that made me tear up a bit was last year, the screen for the men’s college world series was announced as the MCWS, not just the college world series. It was just nice to see the respect for both their endeavors.
For people who may not watch, why should someone give college softball a try?
Wow, as someone who didn’t watch college softball before my daughter played, I think that it’s a tough question. I’ll say this: try it once following your favorite college. There’s no football to watch, and many games are played on the weekend in the middle of the day. Most games do not take 2 hours, and the play is quick. Different styles of hitters, pitchers, etc. If you’ve been a baseball fan, the subtle nuances of how the game is played can be very interesting. Alina, primarily an OF/1B this year, but has also played some 2B/SS in various bunt coverages, including coming in from RF to do it. You will see a play made early in the game that you say to yourself, “I can’t believe a girl made that play!” Then you’ll see another, and another. You will get hooked. I have hooked a few football coaches over the years who now watch college softball with no family ties to any team. It’s a fun sport to watch!
