Watley Appears Destined to Set Bar Higher

Ed Watley is biased, of course. He acknowledges that before he predicts that his daughter, Natasha, will forever change women’s softball.

“There’s no one like Natasha, with her combination of speed and power,” Ed Watley says.

Well, OK, Dad, but what does someone not related to Watley think?

“I don’t think Mr. Watley is far off,” UCLA Coach Sue Enquist says. “Tash is a different kind of player.”

As the No. 4-seeded Bruins prepare to defend their NCAA title today at the College World Series in Oklahoma City, it is Watley, a freshman, who leads them. She is the team’s leader with a .427 batting average and 76 hits, its co-leader with four triples and already has established a UCLA single-season record with 32 steals.

On a team full of college All-Americans, Watley won the starting shortstop position and went on to set an NCAA tournament record last weekend in the regionals with four stolen bases in one game.

Watley played softball for four years at Woodbridge High. Since former NBA stars Willis Reed and Orlando Woolridge are Watley’s cousins and since her dad was a basketball player too, Watley knew there were always expectations she would play basketball. But Watley would not be taken away from softball. Thank goodness, says Enquist.

Watley is 5 feet 10. She has long arms, long legs and sprinter’s speed. She covers the 60 feet between home plate and first base in 2.5 seconds. Before Watley, Enquist says, no one at UCLA did it faster than 2.65 seconds. Players are considered to have exceptional speed if they make it in 2.7 seconds.

Even though she wasn’t selected as a first-team high school All-American, an oversight that Enquist and Ed Watley can’t quite fathom, Watley was the only high school player invited to the U.S. Olympic trials camp last summer. The invitation came after she performed superbly at the 18-and-under national championship tournament.

When she joined the Olympic tryout camp, Watley was, as usual, the only African-American. She is the only African-American player on the UCLA team.

No one seems quite sure why there are so few African-American players in top-level softball. Watley believes the reason is at least partially economic. A good pair of spikes costs $100, a good glove costs $100 or more and the fee to join traveling teams, practically mandatory for any player who wants to get noticed by college coaches, is $500 to $600 a summer.

“It’s a great sport,” Watley says, “that not a lot of people can afford. But I hope I can be a little bit of a role model to other African-American girls. I think it would help the sport a lot.”

Watley’s athletic talent comes by way of the Louisiana bayou. Her dad and her mom, Carolyn, grew up in Louisiana and met at Southern University where Ed played a little basketball and Carolyn played a lot of tennis.

Watley says her father always wanted his daughter to play basketball. “He tried and tried,” she says. “But I couldn’t put aside softball.”

“I didn’t push her,” Ed says. “OK, I could have coached her a little, but I wanted her to play whatever she wanted. Her mother and I got her tennis lessons too, but she was oriented to team sports from the beginning.”

When she was 5 years old, Ed says, Natasha brought home a flyer for a softball camp. “We decided to send her,” Ed says, “because my wife and I figured she could burn off some energy. That little girl was always on the move.”

Ed taught his quick, rangy daughter to play every position but catcher. “Too hard on her knees,” he says.

Enquist, who has seen plenty of talent in her years as a coach, says Watley covers more ground in fielding her position than any player she has ever seen. Her quickness on the bases can disrupt the other team, Enquist says. Watley’s only weakness, Enquist thinks, “is a little lack of confidence.”

Her invitation to the Olympic trials last summer, Ed says, helped Natasha in that regard, even though she didn’t make the team. Only three current college players did.

“She went there all wide-eyed and overwhelmed and she came away seeing that she belonged with those girls,” Ed says.

She indeed belongs among top college players. Watley was a first-team selection on the All Pac-10 team. The Pac-10 has four of the eight teams in the College World Series so it’s safe to say the Pac-10 is the best conference in the nation. It was another Orange County girl, Jenny Topping, a redshirt freshman at Washington who starred at La Habra High, who won Pac-10 newcomer of the year over Watley. Though Watley had the higher batting average, Topping led the nation with 22 home runs.

Natasha still speaks of the awe she felt in playing on the same field with Olympic veteran shortstop Dot Richardson. She says that in travel ball and high school ball she could never figure out Amanda Freed, the Pacifica High pitcher and outfielder who is the sophomore ace at UCLA. It is a modesty that is charming in an age of trash talking.

Having had a bit of Olympic experience last summer, Watley is determined to make the 2004 team. She does not talk of revolutionizing the game. Watley only hopes to keep playing it better and seeing more girls like her doing the same.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at her e-mail address: diane.pucin@latimes.com