Lenti likes his teams battle-tested, I like Lenti...
Pat Flynn
Issue date: 2/1/10 Section: Sports
I came to two realizations when I saw DePaul's softball schedule:
1) I respect Coach Gene Lenti. 2) Teams don't schedule like they used to.
Lenti has the "anyone, anytime, anywhere" attitude. Last season, his team played 12 teams that were ranked in ESPN's preseason Top 25, and this year they play eight preseason ranked teams, including the top three teams in the country in Washington, Alabama and Michigan. They will see those three teams at the Judi Garman Classic in California.
"I would say the Cal-Fullerton tournament is what we look forward to every year," Lenti said. "It's not like you're going to have the most success all the time. It's a gauge for us to see for how far we're going to go."
You don't see people getting after it like that any more, especially in the big revenue sports such as football and basketball. But scheduling like this is a huge draw for recruits as well. Lenti can promise recruits that they will see the country and play the best competition while living in one of the best cities in the world. Not a bad deal.
This season the team will head to California, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina and Hawaii for tournaments - and that's just for tournaments. Not to mention the various places they will go for Big East conference games.
In many cases it gives players the opportunity to play in front of their own families, because Lenti recruits from far and wide. He has to, because the best softball is played in the warm states in the South and on the West Coast.
Nobody can argue Lenti's way of scheduling. It has worked. He took DePaul softball from nothing special to appearing in the Women's College World Series four times since 1999 and are perennially ranked in the preseason polls.
The secret is out on DePaul's program. They are good. People know it now, and DePaul could start scheduling down a little bit. But they don't and that is respectable, entertaining and awesome.
I love it. It is the same way legendary football coach Bobby Bowden took Florida State from nothing to one of college football's elite. He played the best on the road and built his dynasty. Even when FSU was a known power, he still played the best teams.
New age coaches don't do that, and I understand that a lot of it is for financial reasons in the big revenue sports. But if you're an athlete at a big-time school you aren't running that extra sprint in the off-season, or killing yourself for that extra rep so that you can beat No Name U by 15 instead of 16 runs. You push yourself because you want to be able to go toe-to-toe with the best, and win.
Coaches such as Lenti give their players that opportunity.
"In our case we feel like we have arrived," Lenti said. "And every team knows they're going to have a battle on their hands when they play us."
1) I respect Coach Gene Lenti. 2) Teams don't schedule like they used to.
Lenti has the "anyone, anytime, anywhere" attitude. Last season, his team played 12 teams that were ranked in ESPN's preseason Top 25, and this year they play eight preseason ranked teams, including the top three teams in the country in Washington, Alabama and Michigan. They will see those three teams at the Judi Garman Classic in California.
"I would say the Cal-Fullerton tournament is what we look forward to every year," Lenti said. "It's not like you're going to have the most success all the time. It's a gauge for us to see for how far we're going to go."
You don't see people getting after it like that any more, especially in the big revenue sports such as football and basketball. But scheduling like this is a huge draw for recruits as well. Lenti can promise recruits that they will see the country and play the best competition while living in one of the best cities in the world. Not a bad deal.
This season the team will head to California, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina and Hawaii for tournaments - and that's just for tournaments. Not to mention the various places they will go for Big East conference games.
In many cases it gives players the opportunity to play in front of their own families, because Lenti recruits from far and wide. He has to, because the best softball is played in the warm states in the South and on the West Coast.
Nobody can argue Lenti's way of scheduling. It has worked. He took DePaul softball from nothing special to appearing in the Women's College World Series four times since 1999 and are perennially ranked in the preseason polls.
The secret is out on DePaul's program. They are good. People know it now, and DePaul could start scheduling down a little bit. But they don't and that is respectable, entertaining and awesome.
I love it. It is the same way legendary football coach Bobby Bowden took Florida State from nothing to one of college football's elite. He played the best on the road and built his dynasty. Even when FSU was a known power, he still played the best teams.
New age coaches don't do that, and I understand that a lot of it is for financial reasons in the big revenue sports. But if you're an athlete at a big-time school you aren't running that extra sprint in the off-season, or killing yourself for that extra rep so that you can beat No Name U by 15 instead of 16 runs. You push yourself because you want to be able to go toe-to-toe with the best, and win.
Coaches such as Lenti give their players that opportunity.
"In our case we feel like we have arrived," Lenti said. "And every team knows they're going to have a battle on their hands when they play us."
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