Some of Jocelyn Alo’s most prominent career accomplishments took place at Devon Park, perhaps none more notable than her back-to-back NCAA championships as a member of the Oklahoma Sooners women’s softball team.
The 13,000-capacity softball stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla., has been home to the Women’s College World Series for the past three decades and change.
LA28, the organizational body tasked with oversight of the 2028 Summer Olympics, announced on June 21 the historic park would serve as the satellite site for softball competition on the world stage.
As reported in the Oklahoman last week, Alo had a gut reaction. Being an Olympian, thousands of miles away from the actual site of the Olympics, would not promise an equal experience. Others offered harsher criticisms of the decision.
Be that as it may, Alo found some silver lining in her conversation with the Star-Advertiser: All roads lead back to Devon.
“It’s going to be where the World Series is played, so it’s going to be like World Series on steroids, which is great,” Alo said.
Across five seasons at Oklahoma, Alo became the all-time leader in home runs (122), slugging percentage (.987) and total bases (761). And such records were accompanied by a few more specific to Devon Park, formerly known as the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex. Alo is the only player who has hit double-digit home runs (12) at the WCWS, where she also accrued the most hits (32) and total bases (74).
Presuming the likely scenario in which Alo receives a roster spot, Team USA will have home-field advantage in the most direct sense.
“I know the city of Oklahoma so well,” Alo said. “If I needed extra recovery, I know where to go. If I needed to get some good food, I know where to go. If I wanted some extra (batting practice), Norman (Okla.) is right down the street.”
Others who could potentially be considered alongside Alo to join the national team include three of her former Sooners teammates — catcher Kinzie Hansen, outfielder Jayda Coleman and infielder Tiare Jennings, all of whom found themselves in Oklahoma City this past week.
Alo and Hansen are part of the USA Softball Women’s Elite Team, which concluded its summer training camp with an exhibition game against the Oklahoma City Spark — Alo’s professional team — ahead of the Japan All-Star Series in early July.
Coleman and Jennings will play for the USA Softball Women’s National Team in a separate exhibition against Great Britain in preparation to potentially claim its fourth consecutive gold medal at the WBSC World Cup Finals come mid-July. Southpaw pitcher Kelly Maxwell, who transferred to Oklahoma this past season to help immortalize the program with an unprecedented fourth national championship in a row, is also on the Women’s Elite Team.
Softball royalty in the softball capital of the world, per se.
“I’m blessed to be a Sooner, and I love that everybody hates us because it just means that we’re good,” Alo said.
“We’re all in training camp right now, together for Team USA. … I missed playing with a lot of them.”
Alo was still in college when the Summer Games were last held, at Tokyo in 2021. Paris 2024 opted to set the sport aside reportedly due to concerns of popularity and overall support.
So Alo eyes the Los Angeles Summer Olympics as a bucket-list opportunity, no less, amid what logistical controversy exists.
“Today (Thursday), Craig Cress actually got to talk with us and really give us a good perspective of why the Olympics are in Oklahoma City,” Alo said of the USA Softball CEO. “And now that I think about it, it’s actually going to be so much easier for us. Literally the only thing we have to worry about is softball, and the only thing we have to worry about is holding up a gold medal at the end of the day.
“If I get to hold my gold medal at the end of it in Oklahoma City and not in LA, I’m completely fine with that.”
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Jocelyn Alo
>> Position: Utility
>> Bats/throws: Right/Right
>> High school: Kahuku, Campbell
>> College: Oklahoma
>> Professional: Oklahoma City Spark
>> College career highlights: NCAA’s all-time leader in career homers (122) and slugging (.987). Two-time Women’s College World Series champion (2021, 2022) … WCWS Most Outstanding Player (2022); two-time USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year (2021, 2022); two-time Softball America Player of the Year (2021, 2022); NFCA National Player of the Year (2022); two-time Big 12 Player of the Year (2021, 2022); four-time all-Big 12 first team (2018-2022); Honda Sports Award (2022).
>> Recently: Alo placed second at the Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball AUX Championship, a two-week league (June 10-25) formatted to crown an individual champion among 42 players after 18 games. Athletes Unlimited, a public benefit corporation, signed Alo in April. That same month, Alo agreed to a monthlong contract that made her the first woman to sign with the Savannah Bananas, an exhibition baseball team.
