What does Kelly Maxwell want in OSU's next pitching coach? 'Crazy amounts of knowledge'
Kenny Gajewski had a request for Kelly Maxwell.
A pitching-coach wish list.
After Oklahoma State pitching coach John Bargfeldt retired in June, Gajewski went to Maxwell and Lexi Kilfoyl, his top pitchers and arguably the best returning one-two punch in college softball, and asked them what they were looking for in the Cowgirls’ next pitching coach. What did they value the most? What would help them the best?
“I guess I would say my wish list is just someone who’s going to be the same through the highs and lows,” Maxwell remembers telling the Cowgirl head coach. “Someone who brings crazy amounts of knowledge to the game, just being able to pick out the fine details because we don’t need drastic change. Then someone that’s going to care about how our bodies are feeling.”
Basically, she wants another Bargfeldt
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
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Maxwell excelled under Bargfeldt’s tutelage, leading the Cowgirls to three consecutive Women’s College World Series appearances and becoming one of the best lefthanded pitchers in college softball. Next week, she will suit up again for Team USA, this time for the World Baseball Softball Confederation Women’s World Cup in Ireland.
While the return of Maxwell and Kilfoyl for their super-senior seasons is a huge boost to Cowgirl fortunes next season, the loss of Bargfeldt is significant.
Even though he was only in Stillwater for four seasons, he coached perhaps the most impressive group of pitchers in OSU softball history. Carrie Eberle. Logan Simunek. Maxwell. Miranda Elish. Morgan Day. Kilfoyl. Kyra Aycock. Each of them improved as their OSU careers progressed.
(Elish got injured late in her one season with the Cowgirls, so her growth was stunted by that.)
None improved as much, though, as Maxwell.
After she redshirted her first season at OSU, Gajewski had an honest conversation with her.
“You know,” she remembers him telling her after the 2019 season, “I don’t know if you’ll be able to play here.”
Maxwell went back home that summer to the Houston suburbs and started working with her pitching coach. It became a transformative time, but when she returned to OSU, the metamorphosis continued under Bargfeldt.
During the fall of 2021, he and Maxwell added a changeup to her arsenal.
A few months later, she had her breakout season and hasn’t looked back.
She says she can’t thank or praise Bargfeldt enough for what he did for her.
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“He’s a great guy on and off the field,” she said. “Just his stoic character that he brings every day, it’s second to none, and I was grateful for the time I had with him.”
Truthfully, Bargfeldt and Maxwell were a perfect match in terms of their personalities. She described him as stoic, and anyone who’s watched her work in the circle could say the same of her.
Never too high. Never too low.
Finding someone who’s as compatible with Maxwell as Bargfeldt was might be impossible. But even though she hates to lose that rapport, Maxwell doesn’t begrudge Bargfeltdt for retiring; he spent four decades coaching at the high school and college level, including the past two decades in Division-I softball.
“I wish him the best because I know his family missed him and he’s gonna have a lot of time for his family,” Maxwell said.
“I care for him so much and his family, and I know what he did was right.”
Clearly, the bond between Maxwell and Bargfeldt is strong. She acknowledges that pitching her final college season without him will be weird.
“Very much,” she said.
But she knows this is a chance for her to learn new methods and different techniques. She said she wants to establish consistency with inside pitches to right-handed hitters, something with which she’s always struggled. Maybe OSU’s next pitching coach can help unlock that.
Maxwell is looking forward to the possibilities of that relationship in large part because of the one she had with Bargfeldt.
“I hope that we can bring someone in that is going to carry on the kind of legacy that John had here and what he did and was able to do within that short window,” she said.
“I think he’s just prepared me for this opportunity in the best way possible.”
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State softball: New pitching coach faces Bargfeldt's high bar
