Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Is Mark and Brittany with you and our special guest, Liberty University softball coach Dot Richardson. The team coming off their second consecutive Conference USA championship and now getting ready to play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. That game coming up on Friday. Dot, I know you all are flying out today very shortly, so thank you for coming by and spending some time with us.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: Well, thanks for having me. And go Flames. Let's do it.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Tell us a little bit about winning the second conference championship. I mean, what an a thrill that has to be for. For you and for the team to get the experience to win a conference championship two in a row and then head off now to the NCAA tournament.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Well, this is my 12th season.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Here with the Flames. And it's been very interesting because we were in the Big South Conference.
[00:00:51] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Then we go to the ASUN Conference.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: And then we go to Conference usa.
So the Conference USA last year was our first year and how exciting it was to be able to win the regular season championship, then to go to the conference championship, losing the first game to come back to win the conference championship tournament. So to do it again this year in our second year, it shows a little bit of dominance that I'm trying to be humble about, but excited about because God has given these young ladies amazing talents and they're fun to watch.
If you haven't watched this play, keep your eyes on the regional that we're about to go to. Just everything has been coming together and this is a very experienced team and we've got challenges, but it's going to be a lot of fun.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Great.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: And you were also just recently named the CSA Softball Coach of the year. How does that feel?
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Well, I'd like to say coaching staff of the year and I'd like to include our non coaching staff.
It's just been.
God is so good. He's been providing us with so much support. And in the university itself, I mean, guys, I have a director of operation, director of player development. I've got a junior director of statistics and analytics. I have a senior director of statistics and analytics. I can go on and on. I've got like 11 managers that a lot of them just volunteer their time to help. We have a chaplain, we have a shepherd. The spiritual growth at the team.
It's just so. God is so faithful.
[00:02:20] Speaker C: So what are you looking forward to the most coming into this tournament?
[00:02:23] Speaker B: Well, I'm looking to see how we respond to the. The challenge I've mentioned now three times of playing the number one seed in the nation.
It shocked us that we were sent there, it was like, I don't know if we really should be there, but God's got a plan. And I say that because we are a very strong team. And so when you are playing the number one seed, they're hoping that they have a cakewalk. So for us, we're hoping that we're able to eat that cake and have some really fun dessert, because when you look at it, yeah, it's gonna be.
It's gonna be awesome to be playing in Texas A and M. I've been there before.
Grew up playing against Texas A and M when I went to ucla. So very experienced in regards to that rivalry for myself. But this team to be there.
We have. I don't know if you're aware, but we've been in six regionals.
[00:03:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: Five of them in a row. This is the fifth one in a row. And every regional we've been at, we've been able to take the number one seed or a higher seed down.
So we just have to finish it and take them down twice because it's double elimination.
