You know those times when you clean your room and you proudly pronounce to your parents that you're done?
Then they come in and find that sock under your bed that's been missing for two months. Or maybe it's that back corner in the room where your vacuum couldn't quite suck up that piece of yarn.
My mom was certainly good at that, making me redefine my definition of a "neat freak" constantly. But it must be an even bigger pain to be one of Tim Walton's kids.
Oh, Jeremy, you've done it again.
Athletic Director Jeremy Foley has found the Billy Donovan and Urban Meyer of the softball world. Congratulations, Gators, you have another young gem of a coach.
Walton knows the game of softball inside and out - every single detail, or, in this case, where that sock under the bed is.
"Tim works very hard," Foley says. "You can't be successful without an outstanding work ethic. Being a good person - I mean that by easy to talk to, someone who likes people, cares about people. The ability to relate to young people. He's done a great job doing that. He's come in here, worked hard, no excuses, never asked for anything and that's why he's been successful."
When Foley says successful, he means going 62-2 this season. Excuse me, I mean 62 and friggin' 2.
What have you done for the past 64 days? Drank a few cases of Bud Light. Sipped some Margaritas with Jose Cuervo during Cinco de Mayo. Maybe even failed an exam or two, then forgotten that exam with a few more cold ones. You've probably even gone home and given mom and dad dearest a few hugs.
While you've done all that, this squad has not lost one game. Not one slip up. Not one flub. Not one, "Oh well, we'll get 'em next time."
That's 64 games since Feb. 8. That means, for Walton, 64 times that he had to get a bunch of college students' mindset right, and he's only missed the mark twice. And the two losses were by one run, and one was in extra innings. I dare you to try to keep your friends' attention for 20 minutes. I'm pumped when a girl will listen to my rambling for 10 minutes.
"[Walton's] a neat, put together guy," said senior Mary Ratliff, the lone holdout from the previous Karen Johns era. "Cross your Ts, dot your Is. He's that guy."
Being that guy doesn't make it easy on your team, though.
"Even if we win, he's like look at what he did here, here and here," outfielder Kim Waleszonia says. "We need to improve this so we can keep winning against versus teams that are better in that area."
Walton has said he's missed out on some blue-chip prospects in the beginning of his tenure. But the key word there is 'missed.' By saying he missed them, that means he took a shot at them.
After a while, you're going to make one. And that's just what Walton is starting to do.
He's brought in people that fit his style and his program, and they're talented. Very talented. And they're winners.
"Some of them have played at the highest level there is before Division I-College Softball," Ratliff said. "If you look around, they know every other player on every other team because they've played against them since they were 8 years old. That's probably the biggest asset to our team. You got to go after the big dogs, and we landed a couple."
Ratliff is the only senior on this team. Tim, you owe an apology to what your team is probably going to do to the rest of the country next season.
"The guy's 62-2, I'm not sure if you can ever expect that type of success," Foley said. "He's done an outstanding job of recruiting and coaching these young ladies. That record
is most surprising, that's hard to do in anything."
But when you work as hard as Walton, it's not that surprising. Since he's lived and breathed the sport for the vast majority of his life, it makes sense that he knows every detail. He's molded Stacey Nelson into perhaps the best pitcher in the country. But for someone who's pitched in the College World Series for Oklahoma, well, no offense, Jeremy, but maybe it's not that surprising.
