AROUND THE HORN / FOCUS ON AREA BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL : Out of the Diamond Dust : Murray Bringing Respectability Back to Valley College Softball

Organized cheering in the dugout is commonplace among collegiate softball teams. The loud chants and constant clapping are a big part of the game, but you won’t see the Valley College softball team participate in such antics.

At least not this season. After a four-year hiatus Valley reinstated its softball program and the new coach wants her inexperienced players to pay close attention during games.

“We don’t cheer like all the other teams because we’re too busy watching the game to learn,” Valley Coach Kodee Murray said. “We really have a lot to learn.”

Murray was hired last June to revive the school’s softball program and eventually bring back the glory days.

In the 1980s Valley was a local junior college powerhouse in softball that won seven conference championships. But administrators discontinued the sport in 1990 because of budget constraints.

Murray, a Valley native and former collegiate standout softball player, had little time to recruit for her inaugural season with the Monarchs. She scrambled around campus and came up with 12 players, many of whom had little or no competitive softball experience. About half of the players didn’t even join the team until the spring semester in January.

“We have a great group of girls but we’re very inconsistent and inexperienced,” Murray said. “They might dive for a ball when they should be on their feet or stay on their feet when they’re supposed to dive for one. I’d say about 60% of this team didn’t really have the ability to play past high school.”

But they are great students of the game. That combined with Murray’s hands-on coaching style has transformed Valley into a solid team that can hold its own even against tougher competition.

Earlier this week for example, the Monarchs (6-7, 2-4) handed Moorpark its first Western State Conference South Division loss. The Raiders made it to the playoffs last season and went undefeated (18-0) in the conference. The core of that team is back this season so the odds were against Valley.

“I think Kodee is doing a pretty good job considering,” said Moorpark Coach De Dow, the WSC coach of the year last season. “It’s hard to build a program. It takes a lot of work.”

Murray, 35, has never been in this position. She has always been associated with established, winning programs both as a player and coach. She was an All-Foothill League second baseman at Hart High then an All-West Region pick at Cal Poly Pomona, one of the country’s best NCAA Division I programs before it was eliminated three years ago in budget cuts.

Murray also played for the Amateur Softball Assn. national champion Magestics. She was a two-year assistant at Golden West College and in 1987 coached Woodbridge High to the Southern Section 2-A Division title. In 1988 she coached a pro softball team in Italy. She also coached at Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach for two seasons.

“She’s done it all in the world of softball,” Valley Athletic Director Chuck Ferrero said. “She has coached these girls way beyond what they thought they could ever do. We’re lucky to have her.”

Ferrero, a former football coach at Valley, is personally responsible for reinstating softball at the school. When he became athletic director four years ago it was on the top of his list.

He built a practice field and spent money improving the main field adjacent to it. Ferrero also purchased two batting cages, a pitching machine and equipment for the team.

“Everything is new,” he said. “From balls to the uniforms, home plate and all the bases and even the pitcher’s rubber. You name it. The head gear and windbreakers and the bags where all the equipment is carried. We started from scratch.”

Ferrero is hopeful that a well-known name in softball circles like Murray’s will speed the process of building Valley’s program to where it once was. Ferrero was checking out another applicant’s reference with Murray’s father, Bud Murray, when her name came up.

Bud Murray is the longtime Hart baseball coach and a good friend of Ferrero’s.

In fact, the athletic director has known Kodee Murray since she was a little girl, but he never imagined she was available to coach at Valley.

“Bud called me back and said, ‘Kodee may have an interest in that job,’ ” Ferrero said. “I was thrilled.”

Ferrero hopes to have a full-time teaching position available for his new softball coach in the next couple of years. Murray, who has a master’s degree in special education, lives in Valencia and teaches in the William S. Hart Unified School District.

Coaching, she says, is her calling. As a kid at her dad’s ballgames, Murray didn’t run around or play in the bleachers like the other children. She actually paid attention to the games and took mental notes.

“I knew I wanted to be a coach since I was in junior high,” Murray said. “I watched my dad all my life and I still do. I still ask him for advice and he comes out and watches us. If I coached a fraction of what he does I’d be a great coach.”

But so far she has squeezed a lot out of a little talent. Murray spends extra time going through drills and even the most basic of plays. Jennifer Moulden, the team’s ace pitcher, believes the extra work has paid off.

Moulden, a graduate of La Canada, played one season at Division I Illinois before returning home and enrolling at Valley.

“The program is definitely on its way up,” Moulden said. “She’s really good.”

Murray credits her group of overachievers. She says she may not have the best players but their effort is top-notch.

“We’ve made unbelievable progress,” Murray said. Anybody who saw us at the beginning can see it. We’re a much different team than we were two months ago.”

Perhaps by the end of the season some cheering and chanting will be heard from the Monarchs’ dugout.