OU softball coach Patty Gasso, sons looking forward to reunion weekend in Arkansas

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — DJ Gasso isn’t sure he can resist it.

With his mother, OU softball coach Patty Gasso, standing just a few feet away in the third-base coaches’ box at Bogle Park this weekend, the Arkansas hitting coach will probably draw her attention at some point.

“Knowing myself, I might have to say something to my mom every now and then, just to be annoying to her,” DJ Gasso said. “That’s usually what I do is try to nag at her and annoy her, try to get her to smile.”

But he knows that’ll get stopped in its tracks at some point.

“All I have to say is, ‘DJ!,’ and he’ll stop,” Patty Gasso said. “He knows. I’ll go down the line. All I have to do is stay focused. He’s the guy who will unfocus me.”

DJ Gasso didn’t have that chance in 2023 when he was at Utah and faced the Sooners at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic.

In that game, the Utes were in the first-base dugout, so there wasn’t much opportunity for interaction between DJ and his mom.

This time, Patty Gasso will definitely be in earshot of her son.

This weekend will be a rare in-season family reunion for the Gassos that is usually reserved only for the Women’s College World Series or the offseason.

Patty Gasso’s top-ranked OU squad, with older son JT as its hitting coach, visits Arkansas for a three-game SEC series beginning at 6 p.m. Friday (SEC Network+).

The family matriarch is hoping for a peaceful weekend, but fears she might have to separate the brothers at some point.

“I’m done with those two fighting,” Patty said, laughing. “I just want sweet little grandkids. I don’t want to deal with those guys, but they’re good, they’re both really, really good at what they do.”

DJ Gasso is in his second season as the Razorbacks’ hitting coach after three seasons at Utah.

Sooners outfielder Abigail Dayton, who was a freshman for the Utes in 2023 under Gasso, credited him with her development as a hitter.

“Everything,” Dayton said when asked what DJ meant to her development. “I didn’t know how to hit the ball before. … He kind of learned everything he knows from JT. … It definitely helped me coming into the process here just because I knew a lot of the same language that JT was talking about.”

JT Gasso’s hitting system was largely developed during his time away from OU, including the 2015 season when he was an assistant at Michigan State.

In 2016, JT returned to Norman as an assistant on his mom’s staff.

“That’s when he implemented it and it’s just been growing and growing and growing through new technology and science and things that are really changing the way our team is swinging,” Patty Gasso said.

In 2018, DJ joined the Sooners as a graduate manager after playing baseball at Hutchinson Community College, Bradley and Central Oklahoma.

But his brother wasn’t about to give out his secrets easily.

“At first, he was like, ‘JT, tell me,’ and JT’s like, ‘No, figure it out yourself,’” Patty said. “That’s how they were doing things.”

However DJ learned to teach hitting, it has worked.

Going into this weekend, Arkansas is No. 9 nationally in hitting with a .367 average. OU is No. 18, hitting .349.

DJ is also loving what Arkansas has provided him.

Arkansas head coach Courtney Deifel began her coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Sooners in 2008-09 before working her way up the ranks.

DJ’s wife, Grace, is from Fort Gibson. Her family owns a business in Vian, and is close enough to come watch their grandkids when DJ is away.

“Being able to have the ability to have that family dynamic isn’t something I necessarily had in Norman, Oklahoma, with my mom and dad’s family all living in California," DJ said. "I think that’s amazing. Not often do you get to have your job in that competitive environment and everything that you want in your profession line up with your personal life. That’s why Arkansas is a perfect spot.”

DJ said the lessons his mother taught him carried him first as a player and now as a coach.

“How you do one thing is how you do everything,” DJ said of the biggest lesson he gained from his mom. “She’s always been an extremely hard worker, hustler, just finds ways to get it done, get better. When she would do the garden herself, she was grinding, and I mean I know because I would have to pick up all that trash. That’s just a little example of something you do around the house and she just loves that hard work, whether you’re at the field or on the recruiting trail, she’s going to work hard and I think that’s kind of carried over (to me).”

He’s also learned from her not to put too much of himself into softball.

“Softball is not who we are, it’s what we do,” DJ said. “And as hard-working, as competitive as we are and wanting to win, I think at the end of the day she does a great job of being able to separate the two and understand that. Life is so much bigger than wins and losses, even though they have won. … But I think when the program truly changed is when she put that at the forefront, instead of wins and losses.”

DJ might not be able to keep his mouth shut this weekend during the series, but he has plenty of respect for the job JT has done building OU’s offense and for the person his brother is.

“He has four kids, and he’s a great, great father, great brother,” DJ said, getting emotional as he talked about his older brother. “They went through a lot and … you’d never know it. Still funny, charismatic, really smart and find ways to be the best at his job. And I truly think that he is. Hopefully, they can have an off weekend this weekend.”

Patty Gasso said her two sons tell her they don’t talk hitting much.

“But I think that they talk hitting some, but then they go so far and then they stop,” she said. “They won’t go too far. So I don’t ask.”

OU at Arkansas

Three-game series in Fayetteville, Ark.:

• Game 1: 6 p.m. Friday (SECN+)
• Game 2: 4 p.m. Saturday (SECN+)
• Game 3: 11 a.m. Sunday (SECN)