By Greg Lewis
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
UCLA has an Olympic tradition unmatched by any other school, and this tradition extends to softball, where it is the dominant school with seven players on the 19-person roster.
UCLA is as conspicuous in international competition as it is at the collegiate level. The seven players on the national team had played in four of UCLA’s nine national championships.
Bruins on the U.S. team roster are Stacey Nuveman (1997-present), Christie Ambrosi (class of 1999), Jennifer Brundage (1995), Lisa Fernandez (1993), Sheila Cornell-Douty (1984), Dot Richardson (1983) and alternate Amanda Freed (1999-present). Since alternates will not travel to Sydney, Nuveman is the team’s only collegian.
Tanya Harding (1995), Joanne Alchin (1993) and Kerry Dienelt (1991) will play in the 2000 Games for Australia, which, along with China, is Team USA’s main competition for the gold in Sydney.
For the three current Bruins – Nuveman, Freed, plus assistant coach Lisa Fernandez – the Olympics give them a chance not only to represent the United States in Sydney, but UCLA as well.
“Instead of playing for 32,000 people like in Oklahoma (site of the College World Series), we’re playing for 32,000 plus millions. It’s a lot more pressure,” Fernandez said.
There’s also one huge difference for the Bruins, according to Fernandez. “The relationships change. At UCLA, I am their coach. On the national team, I am their teammate,” she said. “It’s so different – as a coach I can’t really be their friend, but (on the national team I am their friend) as a player, it’s great because I also realize that I can learn from them.”
Team USA began its pre-Olympic “Central Park to Sydney” tour of exhibition games in June and is 18-0 through Friday, June 23.
So far, all seven Bruins have performed extremely well.
On Friday, joining the team after completing finals at school, Freed pitched a perfect game in her debut, striking out 11 batters in five innings of a 19-0 win. Nuveman is the team’s starting catcher and is second on the team in on-base percentage, batting average and slugging average. Fernandez has yet to allow a run in three games as a pitcher and is first in on-base percentage, and third in batting.
Cornell-Douty starts at first, Richardson starts at second base, Brundage at third and Ambrosi in left.
“Training with the national team is different,” Nuveman said. “It’s much more self-motivated. When you’re in college, every day is planned, the schedule is strict. With the national team, there is much more training on your own. A lot of the time you are away from the team, but you still have to do the individual workout.”
When not training in the Olympic facility in Chula Vista, Nuveman, Fernandez and Ambrosi work out in Los Angeles. Before the 2000 softball season, Ambrosi and Nuveman learned they would not be able to play for the UCLA and national teams at the same time. Ambrosi gave up her final year of eligibility at UCLA to play in the Olympics, Nuveman redshirted the season, and Fernandez was forced to miss occasional games when her national team responsibilities called.
The loss of UCLA’s two best hitters was huge for the Bruins, but head coach Sue Enquist took it in stride. “Losing Christie Ambrosi and Stacey Nuveman to the Olympic team sends a great message to our current team. If you work hard here, you have a wonderful opportunity to be recognized as an Olympian,” Enquist said.
In March the Olympic team, playing with Fernandez and Nuveman, defeated Freed and UCLA 3-0 and
2-0. UCLA was the only college Team USA played.
In addition to the seven Bruins on the national team, Natasha Watley, who just completed her freshman season as an National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-American, was the youngest player to make the final round of tryouts for the national team.
“Even though I didn’t make it, going through the tryouts was a good thing. Next time around, I’ll have an advantage over the new players because I will have gone through the experience already,” Watley said.
UCLA also placed four players on the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team, with Fernandez, Richardson and Cornell starting and Brundage making the team as an alternate. Janice Parks (1989) played for the Puerto Rican national team in the ’96 games.
Through 18 games of the “Central Park to Sydney,” the undefeated Team USA has outscored the opposition by an overwhelming 133-1 margin. The United States has dominated in international competition since winning the inaugural softball Olympic gold medal in 1996. It has won almost every prestigious tournament, including the Canada Cup, the Pan-American Games and the International Softball Federation World Championships.
Team USA will play approximately one-third of its tour games against WPSL teams, where the squad will get its best pre-Sydney indication of how it is playing. So far, the national team has defeated the Akron Racers and the Florida Wahoos each by scores of 1-0. The low scoring games indicate to national team head coach Ralph Raymond that the pitching is right on track, but the hitters’ timing is a bit off.
The tour goes through 31 cities, before ending in Hawaii on Sept. 3. Olympic play begins Sunday Sept. 17 against Canada. Every U.S. softball game will be televised by NBC.