Candrea To Step Aside While Arizona Seeks Third Straight Title

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ If Arizona is to make a run to a third straight NCAA softball title, it will be without Mike Candrea at the helm. <br/><br/>But don't be too quick to suggest he's done after

Thursday, June 7th 2007, 8:11 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ If Arizona is to make a run to a third straight NCAA softball title, it will be without Mike Candrea at the helm.

But don't be too quick to suggest he's done after 21 years and eight national titles with the Wildcats. Candrea will temporarily switch his attention to the U.S. Olympic team for the 2008 Games in Beijing, but he'll be back with the Wildcats soon enough.

``This is not my last game at Arizona,'' Candrea said after his team beat Tennessee 5-0 Wednesday night for the Women's College World Series title. ``I don't know who's jumping the gun, but that is far from the truth.''

Before the Wildcats' run from the losers' bracket to the championship, Candrea said he considered winning two straight titles to be a modern-day dynasty in a sport that once saw UCLA win six titles in nine years and Arizona claim five in seven years. UCLA is the only team ever to three-peat, with a run from 1988 to 1990.

``It's not something that I think about. You try to win one. You try to stay in the present moment,'' Candrea said. ``I'm huge at the process. I kind of dig into the process and I don't really worry about anything else. Whatever happens is going to happen.''

Arizona faced five elimination games in the World Series, getting shut out by Tennessee ace Monica Abbott once in the preliminaries and again in Game 1 of the championship round.

But the Wildcats found a way to break Abbott's 43-inning scoreless streak in the 10th inning of the championship series' second game, and then rallied for a five-run fifth inning in Game 3. Taryne Mowatt threw 17 straight scoreless innings to finish the series, stranding 26 runners in the final two games.

``I felt being here and going through this, you can't teach experience. And I thought the experience part of it was huge,'' Candrea said.

``I kind of look back and I always kind of think back on the first year that I was trying to win our first national championship. What it was is we were on pins and needles all the time, where this group here, they were more comfortable with their backs against the wall. They knew they could do it. I really felt we had a little bit of an advantage because it's hard to win that first one.''

Candrea said he never lost his cool, even with the Wildcats on the edge of elimination constantly and Mowatt finding her way out of frequent tight spots.

``I just really kind of enjoyed the week. It wasn't a time when I was losing sleep and worrying about anything,'' Candrea said. ``You do your work and then you've got to let them play, and it's going to be up to them.''

Candrea believes his team feeds off the tone he sets, and he's become accustomed to the big stage in leading the U.S. to a gold medal in the 2004 Athens Games and winning more than 1,100 games at Arizona.

``I guess I've been in enough arenas. Nothing gets bigger than the Olympic Games when your country's depending on you,'' Candrea said. ``I enjoy the moment, especially at my age and where I'm at in my career. You don't know how many more times that you're going to get that opportunity to be there. To just kind of observe it is kind of fun.''

Candrea said he expects Arizona's assistants to share the head coaching duties next season while he's away with the U.S. Olympic team. The Wildcats will lose their top three hitters _ leadoff hitter Caitlin Lowe, home run leader Kristie Fox and Chelsie Mesa _ next season but return Mowatt, who proved herself by pitching every inning for the Wildcats at the World Series.

Candrea said he was proud of the way his team matured over the course of the season, although he admitted the Wildcats' freshman class drained his energy and said ``if that's the future, then we have problems.''

``I've had an opportunity to see the best in the world prepare every day for big games, and to see the progress that these kids made throughout the year to get to that point and really see it culminate (Wednesday) is pretty special,'' Candrea said. ``For a coach, that's probably more special to me than anything, just the way they went about their business.

``They kept calm, they kept cool, they kept composed and they believed.''