Kate Peterson left the Oregon women’s softball team in a rush. She didn’t tell anyone she was leaving. She didn’t know where she was going. The freshman just knew she had to get out of Eugene because some team members and coaches “ran me away from the love of the game.”
“I left for a lot of reasons,” the current Brigham Young sophomore said. She has since married and now goes by Kate Walker. “A lot of it was politics. The assistant coaches were conspiring against certain players.”
The team of nine returning letterwinners and nine newcomers was embroiled in controversy that had nearly reached a crescendo. Only a whisper of the increasingly vocal team tensions ebbed from the confines of the dugout. But frustrations escalated to defiance.
A three-year starting catcher quit three weeks before season’s end. Three players — including Walker — who were eligible for the 2002 season didn’t return. And a June 2001 audit revealed head coach Rick Gamez had misused $5,748.64 in team travel funds. He resigned in October.
The 2002 team is marching into its first Pacific-10 Conference game of the season Saturday with disturbing memories, but a bright outlook. Some of last year’s wounds still sting. But players — former and current — believe they have learned from a season marred by infighting and a disappointing 1-20 conference record.

Promising season sours
Player and coach relationships deteriorated in mid-April 2001 as the team amassed a 23-24 overall, 1-5 Pacific-10 Conference record. Members took a week off from practice beginning April 12, 2001, and attended two meetings, one with an Athletic Department administrator and the team coaches.
Several players said the meetings were productive and mended some rifts. It was not to last.
Citing personal reasons, senior catcher Kelly Planche quit the team just minutes before the start of an April 20 game against Washington. Gamez supported her decision and her reasons, Planche told The Register-Guard at the time. She was unavailable for comment on this story.
Walker said the assistant coaches had gradually divided players into cliques that a team meeting couldn’t bridge, and “that’s why everyone quit.” She said Planche was a prime target and was “singled out” by the assistant coaches and some players because of her vocal criticisms of team policies and some players’ work ethic. And in one of the meetings, some players berated Planche for her style.
“She’s upfront, and they had a problem with that,” Walker said. “Kelly was a great leader, in my opinion. Some didn’t think she was or didn’t admit it.”
Walker, too, said she was unhappy with the treatment she received from certain players and the assistant coaches. She said some suggested the only reason she was the team’s starting shortstop was because she and Gamez were Mormon.
“We had a great relationship based on our background,” Walker said. “I did a lot of church things with him and his family. And there were issues of my getting more playing time because of that.”
Gamez said he has stayed in touch with Walker but refused to comment further for this story when reached at his Eugene home.
Former assistant coach Tom Royder said he is now a career counselor and assistant softball coach for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., because his Oregon coaching contract wasn’t renewed at the end of the 2001 season. He said Walker’s accusations are news to him.
“I’m not aware of anything like that,” he said in a phone interview. “I don’t believe that type of situation was a factor.”
The other former assistant coach, Lana Ross, whose contract was also not renewed after the 2001 season, said Tuesday she preferred to answer questions through her Portland, Ore., lawyer. Ross said, “as much as I would like to respond, I cannot on the advice of my lawyer.”
Royder elaborated on his interpretation of the events leading to the team meetings and Planche’s abrupt departure.
“Oftentimes there are differences in playing and coaching philosophy,” he said. “That all happened to hit at one point in one season.”
Internal drama continued to haunt the team in May.
Former Oregon football punter Kurtis Doerr, who was dating designated hitter and catcher Missy Coe, shouted obscenities at Gamez at the conclusion of the team’s May 12 season-ending loss to Stanford. He also yelled, “Way to get your team to play for you, coach.”
Coe was one of the three players who quit the team in the offseason.
Pitcher and outfielder Lisa Wangler also transferred after the 2002 season. The 2001 Oregon MVP is now with the No. 4 Nebraska Cornhuskers. She was in Sacramento for a softball tournament Thursday and was unavailable for comment.

On to new diamonds
This year’s softball team plans to rise like a phoenix from the ashes. The Ducks are 14-8 heading into the regular-season opener against No. 14 Oregon State on Saturday.
But the team hasn’t forgotten where it came from.
“The departure of those three kids has had a profound impact on who we thought might be in our starting lineup,” interim head softball coach Brent Rincon said of the departure of Walker, Wangler and Coe.
But players said they have learned from the tumultuous season that claimed four players, two assistant coaches and a five-year head coach.
“I don’t know exactly why it is so much better this year,” pitcher Connie McMurren said. “We have some new people, but I can’t really explain it. We play together on the field and we communicate on and off the field, which is essential.”
Walker said she is now living at home in Sandy, Utah, with her new husband and is the starting shortstop for the BYU Cougars.
“I regret what happened,” she said. “But I would venture to say that those of us who were involved have moved on.”