Life in the Fast Lane

When teams in larger classifications begin refusing to put a smaller team on their schedule, that's when you know a program has arrived. Farmington's softball program has made shortwork of enough teams in the state's highest classification to make scheduling non-conference opponents a bit tougher, but it's a problem worth having when the tradeoff has been unrivaled success. Since coach Randy Osnes took over the program in 1996, the Lady Cardinals have won two state championships and 10 of 14 conference titles. They've been state runner-up three times and reached the state semifinals twice since 2000. With most of the players returning from last season's final four team, Osnes is cautiously optimistic about this year's possibilities. "We've got a great bunch returning who play hard," Osnes said. "But a lot of teams bring a lot back. Clarksville and Ashdown have a lot of returners and they were very good last year. Pretty much all the teams that were at the state tourney bring a lot back, so it should be very, very competitive." A lot of people credit Osnes with raising that level of competition, especially since fastpitch softball was introduced in the late 1990s. Farmington threw its first fastpitch in 2000, the first year it won a state crown. The Lady Cardinals won the state championship again in 2005. They've also won the conference title and finished no worse than the semifinals in all but one season since 2000. "We're going to go practice this afternoon and there's really nothing were doing differently from our first practices as far as how we teach fundamentals," Osnes said. "We haven't changed a thing." Why fix what's not broken. The 1983 Farmington graduate is closing in on a plateau as he's only 21 wins away from reaching 300 for his softball coaching career. "We have always taken the same philosophies and same fundamentals from when I played baseball," Osnes said. "I did a lot of studying on the short game and made a lot of phone calls. I also watched a lot of college softball and that's how we made the transition (to fastpitch)." Fastlane Osnes said the transition to fastpitch wouldn't have been possible without help from folks like Cameron Smith. Thanks to an oft-used videotape, his seven-pitch process has guided Farmington hurlers since the team won that first state title. Smith worked directly with Cassy Long, a freshman pitcher who was named state tourney MVP in 2000 and later earned a scholarship to Arkansas. "We pretty much lived and died off what Cameron Smith said and how he said to do it," Osnes said. "He was the very first guy I contacted to come to our first clinic. He was a professional fastpitch pitcher and there are so many different styles, but his style of teaching was the simplest to teach our kids." Smith is now the top headhunter for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. vendors through his Rogers company, Cameron Smith & Associates. Despite his hectic schedule, he closely has followed Farmington's progress throughout the years, even though he coached hundreds all over the state through his clinics in the 1990s and early 2000s. "Randy maybe one of the finest softball coaches I've ever been around," Smith said. "The discipline is unmatched even at the college level and fundamentally, he is an outstanding coach and motivator." "His warm-up intimidates the heck out of the other team. It's almost choreographed like something you would see the Rockettes do. You look at the other team watching and they are already defeated." With a background in baseball and football, Osnes understood he had to study harder than most to figure out softball, especially when the dimension of fastpitch was added and increased the speed of the game as well as the intensity of the players. That's when Osnes started stalking Smith, showing up at his clinics all over the region. Smith said Osnes' humility in learning a new sport was inspiring. "He was a sponge," Smith said. "Any place I was going to be, he was there with a couple of others he brought and they brought their video camera and their notebooks. He asked a lot of questions and really just shadowed me." "He really put the time into it. I didn't see that in a lot of the other coaches and it obviously paid off in the way they were killing everybody, even the best teams in the largest classification." Spin Offs Success breeds success and that has been evident in Farmington on many fronts whether it's the 9-year-old practicing harder after watching her idols play for a state title in Lady Back Yard or in the coaches who have come through Farmington before spinning off programs of their own at other schools. Fayetteville has won back-to-back state championships under the direction of Jason Shirey, who worked as an assistant at Farmington. He uses a lot of the same teaching methods and game strategies Osnes instills in his players. "Randy is a great teacher and his teams are disciplined. They won't run into a situation where they aren't prepared or won't give an honest effort," Shirey said. "He believes in his kids and works hard for them. He is a great friend and I'm thankful he found some room for me on the staff a couple of years ago." Long, the first fastpitch star in Farmington, now is head coach of Greenland's softball team and runs her practices much the same way she learned as a Lady Cardinal. "Even though (Osnes) hadn't done fastpitch before, his coaching ability really came out and kind of kept us going those first few years," Long said. "It always helps to have early success. When you work really hard and you get something out of it, it really drives people to work even harder knowing they can achieve success when they do it." Osnes always deflects credit to past players like Amanda Jenkins, Brandy Meadors, Stacy Long, Lindsay Layman, Darla Clark, Allie Benish, Danielle Dierks, Chelsea Morgan, Amanda Anderson and the late Bobbie Dennis, who played slowpitch but easily could have starred in fastpitch. "When it was game time, she was ready to play," Osnes said. "She epitomized the way our players still play today." But the road continues to get tougher each year and Osnes may be his own worst enemy in regard to the steadily increased level of competition each week. For instance, Farmington assistant Steve Morgan's desk has been within arm's length of Osnes' desk for years. He said the amount of information Osnes shares with potential opponents shows his generosity. "Coaches are calling him all the time to pick his brain and get ideas for strategies and pregame warm-ups, program management, and field organization," Morgan said. "We've had coaches come in here for clinics and he goes and speaks at clinics. He's always open to talk softball and he shares everything. "He's probably the No. 1 most recognized name in softball coaching in the state of Arkansas." -