'Proud of who I am': The story behind Kelly Maxwell's tears after OU's national title win

While she let her WCWS play do the talking, her dad had some actual words for OSU's Kenny Gajewski.

Susan Maxwell hugs her daughter, Kelly, after OU won the national championship Thursday. (Jenni Carlson)

OKLAHOMA CITY — Kelly Maxwell emerged from the photo that has become an OU softball tradition — Sooners wearing brand new national championship shirts, holding newly acquired trophies, smiling wide in front of the jumbotron proclaiming them champions — and beelined for her family.

Amid a Devon Park outfield filled with Sooner supporters, the beeline was more of a bob and weave, but her determination to get to them was obvious.

When she reached them, the hugs began.

The tears, too.

The OU ace had shed plenty earlier Thursday night, especially in those moments right after she forced Texas into a groundout that secured another Sooner title and a first national championship for Maxwell. But those tears were a trickle compared to the torrent that streamed down her face as she hugged her parents.

What was behind those tears?

"Just all the things that we've sacrificed and we've gone through," she told me a few minutes later as we stood talking in the outfield. "Just being able to hug them and know that there's still a bright future ahead."

The immediate future didn't look particularly bright for much of the past year. Since she announced last summer that she was leaving Oklahoma State, the naysayers have been chirping. Then when she announced she was going to OU? The chirps became a cacophony of negativity.

"Just as much as I didn't want to hear it or I didn't try to look for it, people were always coming after me," she told me. "And they doubted me, and ... "

She paused.

"I prayed for them."

She laughed.

It hasn't always been easy for Maxwell to laugh. Yes, she loved her new teammates. Sure, she felt good about Patty Gasso and Jen Rocha and everyone supporting her at OU.

But Maxwell would have needed to live in a cave to avoid the negativity directed at her. And that wasn't the only thing weighing on her.

Maxwell joined the three-time defending national champs as a one-and-done player. She only had one season of eligibility, and whatever she did this year would be her Sooner legacy. Would she be part of the team that failed to extend the championship streak, that failed to capitalize on a senior class for the ages? Would she be the ace who didn't deliver? If she was, how would she be remembered?

And how would she think about her time with the program? Would she really feel a part of it?  

The pressure was on every Sooner this season, but there was some extra weight on Maxwell.

"Just coming from where she came from and just all the talk, it's hard when you had some internal things that maybe you had to struggle with on top of the fact that this was a four-peat year," Sooner third baseman Alyssa Brito said. "I think any person would have a struggle handling that situation."

Even though Maxwell rarely shows emotion on the field — I've watched her a lot over the past four seasons — just because she doesn't show emotion doesn't mean she doesn't feel it.

Those around her at OU saw the toll it was taking. Gasso even pulled Maxwell aside for a heart-to-heart conversation before the Sooners played UCLA in a winner's bracket game at the Women's College World Series. Gasso felt like Maxwell was shouldering the weight of the world.

"It's been hanging on her since she got here," Gasso said. It's been hard to watch her not be able to break through.

"She has not pitched free."

Maxwell pitched much more freely against the Bruins and every team she faced after that. She won her last three starts — UCLA, Florida and Game 1 of the championship series vs. Texas — and got a save in her final appearance, Game 2 vs. Texas.

She was named WCWS MVP.

"Just being able to be there with her through every step of the way, see her grow through it," Sooner catcher Kinzie Hansen said, "it was just a special experience.

"I mean, her confidence has gone through the roof."

I asked Maxwell what she had done this season that made her proudest.

"I'm just proud of who I am as a person," she said. "Just what I've been through and just being able to put that to the test and really just give it all, everything I had."

In that post-team-photo hug with her parents, you could see their pride, too. Her dad, Mark, told me that he and wife, Susan, asked one question repeatedly after Kelly decided to leave OSU, then kept asking it after she started leaning toward OU.

"Are you sure?" they said.

"We knew it was going to be tough," Mark said.

Some of the most difficult moments for the entire family came after Cowgirl coach Kenny Gajewski talked about Maxwell's transfer during an event for OSU boosters last August.

"I was upset like most of you guys were upset," he said.

"But if you don't want to be here, go away. I don't want you here if you don't want to be here and wear this logo and represent this school."

Then came the hammer.

"My only disappointment for Kelly is that she went to OU because now she's lost everything here that she's ever done," Gajewski told the crowd. "And as long as I'm here, it'll be hard for her to come back here."

The whole thing landed on Maxwell like a ton of bricks. It was painful for her, and when she hurt, her family hurt.

But they didn't fire back.

"We always took the high road," Mark said.

But Thursday night after the hugs were done and Kelly was off taking more pictures and doing more interviews, her dad looked at me and said, "You go tell Kenny ..." and pointed to his ring finger.

On his daughter's ring finger, there'll soon be a national championship bauble.

"He did her wrong," Mark Maxwell said.

"Sometimes, karma's a bitch."

Kelly Maxwell told me she realized the national championship, pretty much the only thing that had eluded her before this season, was within reach after OU beat Florida on Tuesday. The must-win elimination game went extra innings with her throwing a season-high 148 pitches.

"I didn't know that we were gonna make it out," she said.

Then Thursday night, with OU leading Texas 8-4 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, Maxwell tried not to let her mind wander too far ahead. Not to the final out. Not to the dogpile or the trophy ceremony or the confetti shower. She tried to be in the moment.

"Just really be where my feet are and soak in the fans," she said. "I mean, it's awesome how crazy loud it gets."

She only needed 11 pitches that last inning to dispatch the Horns, secure another OU title and cement herself not only as a Sooner but also as an OU legend.

And in that moment — one she punctuated with a rare show of emotion, spiking her glove on the Devon Park dirt — the pressure was gone. The clouds parted. The expectations fell.

The tears could, too.