In her 2nd season, Shannon Doepking is changing her team culture

No one wants to talk about last season.

Syracuse tied for the third worst record in the Atlantic Coast Conference; went 8-16 in the conference and finished the year on a four-game losing streak. The Orange blew a five-run lead in the last inning of the 2019 opener and were run-ruled in 12 of their 32 losses.

The team blamed each other, head coach Shannon Doepking said. Outside of softball, the team rarely talked or hung out, Alexa Romero said.

“Last season,” senior outfielder Toni Martin said. “We just won’t talk about last season.”

Doepking is determined to make this year different. In her second year as Syracuse’s head coach, she’s decided to prioritize off-field factors before she can start fixing the results on it. That starts with the team’s culture, which is everything to a program, she said.

Softball is a game of failure, she said. Good players succeed at the plate only 30% of the time, and 40% is almost unimaginable. Properly dealing with this constant defeat relies on the team’s ability to unite toward a common goal. Selfish players can internalize their failure, Doepking said, while good teammates will always have each other’s backs.

“If you can’t figure out a way to get girls to be about the same things,” Doepking said, “The failure is going to come and it’s going to separate the team really quickly.”

Her first step to change team culture was recruiting. The team brought in eight new players, nearly half of the 17-player roster. The coaching staff knew what they wanted to do with the team, but needed “kids that buy into what you’re about,” Doepking said.

From the moment the freshmen stepped on campus, there was already a shift in culture. The incoming class came in with a positive attitude that helped shape the off-season — they were “gung ho,” Romero said.

“I really feel like I know the freshmen really, really well and I feel like I hang out with them a lot,” Martin said. “A lot more than the seniors ever hung out with me in the past.”

Freshmen Jude Padilla and Kaia Oliver both said Romero is a leader and helps everyone contribute to the culture that Doepking is building. She helps them learn “the ropes of being a freshman,” and what it means to be a college teammate.

After Romero struck out a Rutgers batter, freshman Rebecca Clyde screamed and jumped up and down. After Catie Dobbs’ first career start — a 4-3 loss to No. 20 Texas Tech —the entire team huddled around her. The team culture has changed. A culture that is symbolized by a team plant, Doepking said, named Barry.

“We have to care for the roots of Barry in order for the plant to bloom,” Doepking said. “Just like we need to take care of our culture.”

Any culture change starts with Doepking. She was hired by Syracuse in September 2018, so she played no role in recruiting and missed the first month of team workouts. The former three-time Women’s College World Series participant had no time to bond with her new players and there was a lack of trust between player and coach for much of the season, she said. Now, since she’s had that chance, the team is behind her.

“Our entire fall was designed around building the foundation of what is culture and how do we fuel this thing we keep talking about little by little, drip by drip,” Doepking said. “And so I think the difference between last year and this year is we had time to do that.”

After a walkoff upset win against Texas Tech, Doepking called the team into a huddle. She shouted out players that played well and certain adjustments the team made. At the end, the entire team put their hands in the middle.

“Hey,” Doepking said. “Family on three.”