Kenny Gajewski knows a thing or two about winning — he is a three-time national champion, once as a player and twice as a coach. He was part of the University of Oklahoma baseball team that won it all in 1994, then was part of the Florida Gators first ever softball national championship 20 years later. He tacked on his last National Championship when the Gators won their second World Series Title in 2015. As the defensive specialist on the Gators' staff, Gajweski helped the team set fielding percentage records each year he was there, finishing the 2015 season with only 33 errors on the season and a .981 fielding percentage. 

Needing a new head coach for its softball team, Oklahoma State University set their eyes on the champion. In the Cowgirls' official press release, OSU director of athletics Mike Holder had this to say about Gajewski, "I'm excited for our young women who will get to play for Kenny and his staff and I'm excited about the future of our program. Kenny has been part of the last two National Championship teams at Florida and that is certainly impressive. But we hired Kenny because of who he is as an individual. We had a very deliberate and thorough process and talked to a lot of smart people. Kenny's name continued to surface in just about every circle. I think the Oklahoma State family is going to love him.

We had the opportunity to speak with Gajewski about his transition from baseball to softball and get insight into his illustrious coaching career. 
_____

Your hire at Oklahoma State is a little bit of a homecoming for you. How does it feel being back in Oklahoma?
I”m actually from the west coast, but after I went to junior college I transferred to Oklahoma. To tell you the truth, I really thought that after OU, I would just be in Oklahoma for a couple years then go back home, but I never left so I think that speaks volumes to the state of Oklahoma as a whole.

Given your baseball background and playing career at Oklahoma, how did you transition to coaching softball?
Well I think it was just a chance that Tim Walton had offered. You know, the transition was difficult at first — just the speed of the game was probably the most difficult thing. It was probably six months in before I really started to feel like I was on the same page as the other coaches on our staff, as far as the softball aspect. In the end, though, it’s still coaching, it’s still managing people so that part wasn’t as difficult as getting the speed of the game down.

Photo: Oklahoma Baseball

You mentioned Tim Walton giving you a chance — how did your relationship with him develop?
Tim and I were college teammates at our junior college in California and we both played at the University of Oklahoma (I was a year older), so we became family and really, really good friends. We stayed in touch while he was at Wichita State and when he went to Florida we probably talked at least once each week. We were constantly in touch. You know, if I had an off weekend, my family and I would travel around at times and watch his teams play. I remember being in the dugout his second year at Florida in the Super Regional at Texas A&M, so I wasn’t a stranger to softball. Tim and I had always talked and when the timing was right, I made the move.

Describe the feeling of winning two national championships with Florida.
Oh, man it’s unbelievable. You know, Tim and I both won one at the University of Oklahoma as players on my senior team. So obviously I’ve done that as a player but do to that as a coach is a different feeling and to do it back-to-back is sort of surreal in a way. I don’t know man, it’s special to be able to watch kids — that’s probably the most special part — watch your kids grow a full year. There are parts of each year you’re looking at your team thinking ‘there’s no way this team can get it done’ or ‘there’s too many things not going right’ then it just comes together at the right time. But the feeling is surreal — it’s emotional, it’s exciting, it’s a release in a way, at least with the second one. As you get closer and closer, you can sort of taste those things and it’s just an incredible, incredible thing.

What’s one thing you’ve taken to Oklahoma State from your time under Tim Walton at Florida?
Relentless — just constantly striving to get better each day. Constantly being focused on the little things. I think that’s probably what I’m probably going to take away so now everyday I’m making sure that we’ve crossed our ‘t’s and dotted our ‘i’s. That’s probably what I lay in bed at night thinking about — the scariest part is trying to get all that done and feel like you have your team prepared for any situation.

Photo: Florida Athletics

Your initial interest in Oklahoma State was its tradition and history. What specifically about the history drew you to OSU?
Well, I think the fact that they’ve had seven world series appearances, three Olympians, and I believe 38 All-Americans is something we can build from. There’s a lot of history and going into that history is the athletic department as a whole. My boss, Mike Holder, is maybe the most successful golf coach in NCAA history, so the combination of the softball history and the chance to work under an athletic director who has been a coach and won — I just thought, ‘boy, this could be good for me personally as a coach because I got a guy I can go to. And I also have maybe the greatest wrestler of all time, John Smith, who’s our wrestling coach. There are just a lot of good resources and top it off it’s a great state. It’s rich with softball talent. One thing I go back to when I was at Florida is that there was a lot of Florida kids who made a big impact and that’s one thing I want to do here. I want to have a big impact in our home state and build our core team around them then go out and cherry-pick what you need to around the country. I think having some home-grown talent is important to any winning team.

You mentioned the 7 WCWS appearances for Oklahoma State, with 2011 being the most recent. How did you intend to position OSU back at the top of the Big 12 and in the WCWS again?
I think it’s some of those things we talked about. It’s bringing a relentless work ethic to our school each day and instilling that into our kids. It’s also about letting them know about the history and great players that were here before them. You know, the facility we have is from them; they’re the ones who got that built. I just think if we can strive to get better each day — we tell our team, ‘just have a good practice today’ — we can build on that. I talk to them about ‘making deposits,’ whether it’s into their bank account or into their day-to-day work, and just tell them to keep making deposits so when things aren’t going the way we want them to, we’ve got something to pull from. I tell my team, ‘success is a broad word’ and what success is in wins and losses, I don’t know but we can be very successful if we continue to do the right things each day. I think most of us who have been in sports a long time understand that if you continue to do the right thing — continue to be good teammates and good people — things usually work out in the right way. So that’s our goal. That’s what we’re tying to do each day.


Related:
Texas Glory girls headed to Oklahoma State
Big12 Snags Gametime Stars