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I don't think I can talk either about my Arizona state time without

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talking about coach koshikawa, you
know, coach koshikawa was such an icon

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in the men's athletic department for
so many years. And um, I knew his

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name when I came in. I, I've been
introduced probably to coach. I knew

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what a great figure he was at Arizona
state and iconic.

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And I guess this is um, years into my
experience. One day, here comes Dick

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Allen and coach koshikawa and they're
at my practice. I'm flattered. So I

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stopped my practice and I bring them
down on the field and I introduced

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him to the team and oh, coach, it's so
great to see you and thank you. And

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um, meanwhile, um, coach had been very
homebound for several years with

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his ailing wife, she had passed away
and spent a couple of years, I think

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getting his feet back under him. He
had started to go out to football

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practice and I think just on a whim
came over to have a look at softball

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and he got hooked and so did I. And he
spent many, many of his late years

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coming to softball every day being
around the team often. Um, Dick Allen,

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who was an alumni of the program and a
great uh, friend to coach, brought

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him over and oftentimes then after
practice I would drop him off. He lived

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right off of Mill Avenue and Tempe and
invariably coach would say, well,

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you probably, you should come in, you
know, and we should talk it over and

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he always had his, you know, yeah, we,
we got to talk it over and so we

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would have our chat at the end of the
day and we, we're for such an odd

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couple. I mean how did that work? But
we became such great and close

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friends. I looked up to him and
admired him so much and I know I are

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already mentioned carol spanks who I
coached within the pan american games

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and she's probably one of the most
positive, optimistic,

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glass half full kind of people and
that's exactly how coach k was. He was

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, he had such interesting life
himself, you know, serving in the, you know

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, the japanese american unit of our
military. Um he was a great athlete

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himself here. I don't know, we just
became these kind of friends and spent

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so much time together. He was, has
been such an important part of my life

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here at Arizona state and of course,
um you know, coaches passed away but

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what a great life he had and I'm so
honored to just have been a part of it

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and you know, to really say, gosh, we
were, we were just friends and he

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was such a great supporter of the team
and of course all of the players

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loved him, hey coach, you know, and as
it became a little harder for him

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to gain the stairs, they were always
there helping him and being a part of

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it. Many of the parents of the teams,
you know, kind of always had a hello

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for coach and he certainly always had
a hello for them. So I, you know,

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it's just another part of this great
history of Arizona state that I've

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been so honored to share in. That's a
wonderful example. I mean because

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coach had been here, I believe his
coaching was like 41 years or something

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and he too coached all the sports. Um,
and of course Christine, Kadokawa

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Wilkinson is a great influence on
Arizona state, but the, their family

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together, his wife market, um, Bill
and uh, Christine have really of a

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family that has had an impact on so
many aspects and university. Um, we

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have a classic as well, don't we? We
do for softball. Did you name that?

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Yes, I was so honored to name a
tournament for coach K and he has um, you

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know, he has seats with his name on
him and the stadium and uh, yeah, he's

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just such a fond memory. And we also
named are male and female student

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athlete of the year after coach. So
trying to recognize his contribution,

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what his influences, what an icon,
what an icon. And my, my parents would

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come out and visit in the spring along
with my grandmother who, you know,

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I often like to say, you know, I grew
up kind of,

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you know, the most of the athletic
models at the time were men, you know,

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I wanted to be bob Gibson or you know
Julio and Javier or or you know, I

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near the ST louis cardinals and then
as I got older, you know it became

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the Amelia Earhart. Mhm Annie Oakley
and you know you looked at those kind

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of iconic women and then I got older
and I wanted to be like my

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grandmother, you know, looking at her
life um and I'll just give you like

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one story about her growing up, you
know through the depression years and

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when she's five years old, she makes a
pact with her best friend at five

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that when they grow up, when they get
big and they get married, they have

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kids, if anything ever happens, you
know, they'll take care of one

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another's kids. And 30 some years
later my grandmother finds out that her

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friend has passed away and might have
had a child and tracks

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to find the boy in an orphanage and
adopted them as her own. That's my

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grandmother. You know, when he is a
senior in high school, one of his

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friends tragically loses his parents
and he asked Okonjo spend the night

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and he never left and so she brought
into the family another son. So in

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addition to having my mother who was
technically than the only child, she

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got a brother and then later you know
another brother and so you know, I

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look at the just the opportunity that
she and my grandfather and my

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grandparents how you know, they work
to make our families work and so the

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older I got, the more admirable I
became, you know, she lived to 98 and

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every day just love and life and
really kind of looking forward, You know

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, to the challenges and she would say,
Oh I wish I was 90 again, you know

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, to make us all laugh. But you know
what a heroine um to me and then so

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many of them that you begin to, even
though your life becomes more global.

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Your, I don't know, your heroine
hero's become closer to home I think

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during the many years of coaching of
course at Minnesota at Arizona state

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um even as a grad student um you
competed at the highest levels, your

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teams, you know, strive to be, you
know, that gold medal, that, that

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regional national championship for
collegiate softball course going to the

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college world series um along the way.
Um there's a list of championships

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and there's a list of honors um but
there's some special moments to and uh

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I was fortunate to participate in in
one um which was nominating AJ,

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Alyssa johnson for the women athlete
of the year award um from the N. C. A.

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And the Honda award um and that was
really a unique opportunity which we

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were behind the scenes and nominating
her, it came out and announced it at

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the field and AJ didn't know yet. Um
but she at the banquet in front of

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the whole N. C. A. A mentioned our
names and that was for me a really

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incredible moment. It's sort of like I
was so happy for her and receiving

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the Honda award is incredible. Um and
I think it may have been the first

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one a s you ever,

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but can you talk about Alyssa and her,
her path to that moment was very

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special. Yeah, and I think melissa as
being the exemplary story, kind of

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example of so many athletes or
experiences I've had where people are

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overcoming things. But Alyssa johnson
is a recruited softball player out

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of Marcus Dumisa right down the
street. Um, she comes in, she's already

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bleeding maroon and gold. She is an
outstanding player and uh overall

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great athlete. She's, we're training
for the beginning of what would be

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her junior year and she doesn't seem
right to me, you know, you never know

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was it a boyfriend, It's uh you know,
just having a rough time or so I

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asked her and she says, oh wow, I'm
not feeling so great. I have headaches

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, getting these headaches. Well, we
think there's migraines in her family.

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So she's onward to be diagnosed. And
about a week later I'm called down

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to the training room and at the time
she's playing with lisa de Cristo

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who's another all american in our
program and having a back problem. You

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remember lisa and I think I'm getting
called down to the training room so

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they can tell me whether lisa di
questo can play or not because she's got

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a back problem. The team doctor says
close the door and then says, Alyssa

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johnson has a brain tumor. He talked
to me for another 40 minutes. I have

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no idea what the man said. I did not
hear one more thing, but it ends up

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that we need to contact Alyssa, get
her with her parents.

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It's a nightmare. She has a brain
tumor. They want to medicate her and

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shrink the tumor, which means her
athletic career is over. And Alyssa

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insists that she have surgery and
Barros does surgery

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and she has the surgery in october to
remove a brain tumor and I'll never

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forget this. She's wheeled out and
wheeled by and she recovers and plays

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that season comes back to the team
finishes her career and as a result

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wins the Honda inspirational award,
the first award of its kind at Arizona

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state. And I just remember, I and I
think it's pretty typical. I'm stoic,

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you know, because you really don't
know how to be because it affects her,

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her family. You know, you don't know
how what is gonna happen. And I

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remember the doctor coming out after
the surgery and he goes, she's gonna

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be just fine and everybody else is
cheering and I'm crying. It's like

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finally I could just like give it up.
So I was so it was such an emotional

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but such a rewarding experience and
you know it's it's kind of I have

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those by you know not not that
dramatic of course but the idea of having

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challenges and overcoming them. I can
name so many examples of my players

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who have face something whether it's
um family, it's academic, its

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athletic, it's injury, it's this it's
that and they meet the challenge and

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exceed and now I still you know, see
elicit the football games and she's

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still such a wonderful engaging person
and there she is and she she did

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that she overcame that. And when you
provided a platform really for her to

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do that and that's one of the things
intercollegiate athletics does is it

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really embraces the student athlete.
Uh Come here to be students to

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participate in their sport. They
hopefully leave here with a college

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degree because that's part of the
bargain that we make is that you come

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here to be and a. S. U. Alumni and uh
that women's athletes have always

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really graduated. So that wasn't like
a high bar that was just expected.

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And I believe most if not all of your
student athletes earned their

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degrees which is a real tribute to you
as a head coach um Along the way

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people called These young people
athletes and we started then and probably

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the 90s calling them student athletes
and rewarded graduation rewarded you

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know athletic performance as well. Um
and I agree with you. Alyssa is a

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perfect example of your type of
student athlete who played in the A. S. U.

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Softball program and she's not the
only one. I mean just as long as

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they're here's tammy Loman, I see
tammy Loman uh southern California girl

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, I watch her play when she's in
eighth grade and I say this I I have to

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have this player, she ends up being a
sun devil and now is the assistant

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coach at the university of California.
And in fact I have a photo maybe

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it'll be running right now of here's
tammy getting the winning hit against

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cao as a sun devil. And now um you
know she's maybe even gonna say a word

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on here about um playing at Issue and
now being a coach at cal and I look

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at her, I'm so proud of her and it's
just so fun to see you know and then

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um you know another highlight of
course. Speaking of cal Diane nine Mayer

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becomes my assistant for the olympic
games in Athens in 2004 and we just

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have great experiences together
coaching the greek team a sidebar. The

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greek team um are many greek american
players who have had collegiate

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experience in this country including
our own Stacey Farnsworth who played

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for me at Issue, became an assistant
in my last years of coaching, played

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on the greek team and now um is a
specialty catching coach in California

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and her name is Picard now and there's
the, you know, the little boy

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Austin who will be making the next
round, probably will no doubt be an

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athlete. So there's so many of that in
every team, you know, every one of

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the teams here played in the
regionals. When I was at Minnesota, I had a

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few great teams, including my um in in
my last year I had that I coached

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all three teams participated
volleyball, basketball and softball

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international championship. Um In
1981, when I um Left volleyball, both

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teams competed in the top 10 in the
country. So just great competitive

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experience, every team here in
regionals and when super regionals come in.

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Super regionals every year in 1999. Um
Probably a very special year uh

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competition at the College World
Series and 2002, um finishing third in

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the competition. Now, it must be
really special for those, thank you's to

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becoming your way because you've
influenced so many people and for those

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who do say thank you, there's you
know, dozens more who who think it?Um