'Pretty Aggressive': Trisha Ford aims to build on success in 2025

Trisha Ford and the Fightin’ Texas Aggie softball team return to Davis Diamond on Thursday to open the 2025 season with the Aggie Classic. We’re looking ahead to the upcoming campaign with our 2025 Texas A&M Softball Preview Series.

There are a bunch of numbers on a bingo card.

But nowhere on that bingo card did many imagine that Texas A&M softball would have a No. 16 by its name.

At least not so quickly.

“To start the season, I don’t think anybody had us on their bingo card of doing what we did,” head coach Trisha Ford said. “Nobody thought we’re a No. 16 seed, and we’re going into the No. 1 seed.”

Despite erroneous seeding to set up a super-regional matchup with Texas, she had the Aggies one win away from a long-awaited return to the Women’s College World Series.

Now, Ford’s vision is coming into focus.

Arriving in Bryan-College Station in June of 2022, Ford has proved to be a “bingo” of a hire.

When she first saw Davis Diamond, the $28.6 million state-of-the-art facility that opened in 2018, she thought to herself, “Holy moly, I have made it. This is the mecca of softball here.”

Jamie Maury, TexAgs

Trisha Ford’s Aggies open the 2025 season on Thursday, Feb. 6, with a doubleheader against Utah State (4:30 p.m.) and Purdue (7 p.m.) at Davis Diamond.

She saw everything she needed to build a program.

After stops at Saint Mary’s, Stanford, Fresno State and Arizona State, Ford’s credentials and talent landed her the job in Aggieland.

Entering her third season leading the Maroon & White, she quickly brought success back to the program. Ford has led the Aggies to a 79-36 record through two years after finishing 44-15 in 2024. Last spring, the Maroon & White posted their most wins in a single season since 2017. They also turned Davis into a fortress with a 27-2 (.931) home record.

In her debut campaign, she took the Aggies to the 2023 Austin Regional, where A&M fell to Texas. In 2024, A&M climbed the ladder and made it one step closer by punching its ticket to the Austin Super Regional. Once again, the Aggies fell short as they dropped a three-game series to their arch-rivals.

Reaching the Women’s College World Series is the next rung.

“We’re getting close,” Ford said. “I think we’re tasting it if I'm being honest with you, and what I mean by that is we’re on the brink of hopefully really opening up a can of consistency. And what I mean by that is a can of consistently being in the top 10. Consistently being in a super regionals final. Consistently being at Oklahoma City.”

OKC and the WCWS are always the goal.

A&M hasn’t been on that stage since 2017.

The Aggies haven’t won it all since 1987.

Close isn’t close enough, though Ford is getting closer to ending that drought.

A Fremont, California native, the 47-year-old first found her passion for softball by playing ball with boys until she was 12. Once she made it to American High School, Ford participated in softball, basketball and volleyball, earning nine varsity letters. Her talent and love for the game earned the Bay Area kid a scholarship to play collegiately at Saint Mary’s in nearby Moraga.

Proudly wearing No. 9, Ford became one of Saint Mary’s most successful female athletes. A 1999 graduate with a degree in politics, she was inducted into the Gaels Hall of Fame and had her number retired in 2007.

However, the Saint Mary’s legend was absent at her own ceremony.

Her assistant coaching commitments to Stanford took priority.

“It was a great honor. It surprised me,” Ford said. “We had a game. Anybody that knows me knows I am not missing softball.”

Ford became the head coach of her alma mater in 2002, where she learned the art of coaching collegiately and developed chemistry between her players at Saint Mary’s. At first, she was hesitant and unsure of this career. She harbored dreams of being a teacher or a research lawyer.

However, those around her knew she had found her calling.

“It’s kinda funny because now, looking back, I for sure could see how I was going to go into coaching, and I feel the same I do about my daughter that I think she’ll go into coaching as well,” Ford said. “I love that connection piece with players. The eagerness to learn and to kinda problem solve is really what led me into coaching.”

Ford took the next step in her coaching career by joining John Rittman’s Stanford staff as an assistant in 2004 and became an associate head coach in 2009.

In Palo Alto, she learned lessons and watched Rittman’s influence. She saw the importance of being calm, sitting back, listening to the Cardinal players, observing them and then inserting herself rather than pouncing immediately.

Due to Rittman’s commitments with USA Softball, Ford would serve as a pseudo-head coach during his absences. She tinkered with how she liked to coach and got a feel for running a team.

“Administratively, he allowed me to really dig in and understand what it was like to run a program,” Ford said. “I learned there because he gave me that freedom, and he trusted me to be able to handle all of it.”

Her willingness to adapt to a new culture opened another door for her to become the head coach at Fresno State in 2013.

While leading the Bulldogs, Ford brought the program to new heights, winning back-to-back Mountain West Championships and earning Mountain West Coach of the Year honors in 2015 and 2016.

Zoe Kelton, TexAgs

A pitching coach by nature, Trisha Ford’s 2025 staff will be anchored by All-American southpaw Emiley Kennedy.

In 2017, another opportunity lured Ford to Arizona State. During her time in Tempe, she ushered her Sun Devils to the Women’s College World Series in 2018 and was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year in 2022.

“I think we really learned how to be gritty, how to be tough,” Ford said. “My last season there, our team was one of the best in the country, so I really connected. I dealt with some success there. We dealt with some tough seasons, so I think for me, it just helped evolve my progression.”

Success in Tempe set the stage for her move into the SEC, ditching maroon and gold for Maroon & White.

When Jo Evans’ contract was not extended following the 2022 campaign, Ford emerged as a candidate. And it was the perfect fit with how Ford’s core values aligned with those of Texas A&M University.

“We talk a lot about grit,” Ford said. “We talk a lot about loyalty. We talk a lot about toughness. We put our heads down, and we work. We’re very process-oriented.”

That’s the blue-collar mentality the 12th Man celebrates.

Hired on June 7, 2022, Ford assembled a coaching staff that has played a pivotal role in revitalizing A&M’s once-proud program.

Indeed, Ford credits assistants Jeff Harger, Russ Heffley and Eric Leyba for the Aggies’ success.

Harger, who followed Ford from Tempe to Aggieland, has only expanded on his offensive achievements.

“I wouldn’t be here without Jeff,” Ford said. “He is my right-hand man. I think very rarely do you find somebody that gets you. He’s kinda my voice, and I'm his voice. We see very eye-to-eye to things. I think the biggest thing for me is I respect the heck out of him. I always tease that he is the brother that I didn’t know I wanted. So, he’ll come in here and say things that I don't want to hear, but you need that. He’s really the nuts and bolts of the program.”

Heffley, another key addition, has Aggie softball’s recruiting rolling.

“He loves to recruit,” Ford said. “He loves relationships. He’s always on the phone. He’s doing camps. Talking to people. Meeting with people. Recruiting.”

Leyba, who is entering his second year at A&M, brings his blue-collar approach and feel to the program.

“He was a men’s fastpitch guy,” Ford said. “So there's some things from a pitching standpoint that I pick his brain about, but he’s just a jack of all trades, so he throws live to our girls. He works with our infielders. He helps coach Harger during games and talks to the hitters as they’re prepping to go onto the field.”

Those three men have provided the tools to help Ford build her program.

But the work is not done.

“I think there’s tools that you’re able to put into your toolbox, so I think I’ve learned to listen,” Ford said. “I’ve learned to really explore other avenues. I’m really an outside-the-box thinker. I ask for help. I surround myself with really, really smart people, and so I think that foundation kind of helped me into this role.”

With a heartbreaking ending to the 2024 season, there were challenges to overcome, but Ford has attacked them head-on.

“I think the best way to deal with challenges is through it,” Ford said. “Running from any type of situation or problem, I think, is never the answer, and so I always want to teach them the skill set of how to go work through it. It doesn’t have to be a straight line, but you have to step up.”

A fresh start in 2025 has seen a reboot offensively and defensively for the Maroon & White with key additions to the pitching staff that Ford will hope relieve some weight put on All-American left-hander Emiley Kennedy.

While the roster has been reinforced, Ford’s pitching formula and approach to practice remain the same.

Pretty Aggressive.

“I love on them hard, but I push them past their comfort,” Ford said. “They know that I have their back, but they also know I’m not here to make them comfortable and be their friend.”

With Opening Day scheduled for Thursday, Feb 6, at Davis Diamond, the community has meant a lot to Ford, and she is ready to again be in front of the 12th Man.

A year ago, the Aggies were one win away from OKC. In 2025, they’re a top-10 preseason team, including a No. 7 ranking from the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll.

This year’s A&M squad has its eyes on the promised land.

However, Ford’s outlook remains the same, regardless of preseason hype.

“It means nothing until the end of the year,” Ford said. “We have started to move in a good direction. I have faith because when things got real this fall, we saw some good stuff. Our players truly believe that they are really good and should win every game, and I love that. I love that confidence.”