NORCO — Norco softball coach Rick Robinson has been working his way through Bill Belichick’s recently published book “The Art of Winning: Lessons from a Life in Football.”
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Norco head girls softball coach Rick Robinson bats a ball during fielding drills during practice at Norco High School on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. The Norco softball program will be making its 10th appearance in a CIF Southern Section championship game on Saturday in Irvine. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
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Norco head girls softball coach Rick Robinson bats a ball during fielding drills during practice at Norco High School on Wednesday, May 28, 2025. The Norco softball program will be making its 10th appearance in a CIF Southern Section championship game on Saturday in Irvine. (Photo by Will Lester, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
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Robinson became intrigued with Belichick’s coaching philosophies after striking up a friendship with former New England Patriots long snapper Lonie Paxton, who was a standout football player at Centennial High School when Robinson coached softball there. Robinson believed those methods could transcend football, so he made many of them the foundation of the Norco softball program.
Norco has become high school softball’s current standard for sustained excellence in the region, the state and even the nation. The CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs is widely considered the nation’s toughest postseason bracket. Saturday night at Irvine’s Barber Park, Norco squares off against El Modena for this season’s Division 1 title. It will be the program’s 10th appearance in a section championship game and ninth in Division 1 since the 2009 campaign. The next most Division 1 finals appearances during that same time frame is four by Big VIII League rival Santiago.
The Cougars twice have been selected a mythical national champion (2012 and 2019), and MaxPreps.com, back in 2022, tabbed Norco as the nation’s best program over the previous decade.
So, how exactly did “Horsetown, USA” simultaneously become “Softball Town, USA?”
STABILITY AT THE TOP
Robinson has racked up 727 career victories over 31 seasons, 622 coming over the past 26 years at Norco. He is the Inland Empire’s winningest softball coach and ranks ninth in state history.
“We’ve been fortunate to have some really great players,” Robinson said. “My name gets credited in the record books, but it’s the work our players put in every season that is responsible for each and every one of those wins.”
But players do come and go. And each year’s roster is different and has a unique dynamic. The one thing that hasn’t changed much during Robinson’s tenure at Norco is the coaching staff.
Robinson took over the program in 2000, and associate coach Dave Angene has been with Robinson from the start. Robinson’s sister, Beth Windham, has been the pitching coach for 20 years.
“When you have that kind of stability with your staff, things run much smoother,” Robinson said. “Do we always agree? No. But we can have the honest debates together and not have things blow up.
“We try to promote making this feel like a family, and it all starts at the top. When everyone is working together and playing for each other and not for themselves, you see the results on the field.”
ALWAYS A FAMILY, HAPPY OR OTHERWISE
It has not always been kittens and rainbows. There have been rough patches, even during some of the most successful seasons.
One prime example was the 2003 team that captured the first of the program’s six CIF Southern Section championships. The players on that team did not have the greatest chemistry. But they disliked Robinson more than they did one another, and that unified the team over the course of the season.
“We are always a family. Sometimes we are a dysfunctional family, but it’s a family nonetheless,” Robinson said about some of those more challenging years.
Windham usually has the responsibility of shutting down any drama that pops up.
“I’m blunt,” Windham said with a laugh. “I can say things to them that Rick and Dave can’t. There have been a lot of ‘tough’ talks over the years.”
Said Robinson: “Beth has ‘THEE meeting’ almost every year with the girls. It’s Year 20 with Beth here, and to this day, Dave and I still don’t know a single word that was said in those.”
Robinson also is big on accountability throughout the program. And it goes beyond coaches holding players accountable. The players must do it amongst themselves, as well.
“We have high standards at practices and during games,” senior catcher Ashley Duran said. “We can have those honest conversation which each other and not take everything so personally.
“Norco is very family-oriented. We’re always looking out for one another like sisters and pushing each other to success. I think that’s why this program thrives better than most other programs.”
‘DO YOUR JOB’
Those three words have been associated with Belichick for many years. And its a phrase Robinson and his assistant coaches have uttered plenty of time during their time at Norco.
“You don’t succeed at this level by having just 1 or 2 star players,” Robinson said. “It takes every player, from the headline players to the last player on the end of the bench to do what we do.
“And we make sure everyone is prepared the same way, because you never know when you might have to call on someone in a big moment. Everyone is getting their reps during practices.”
OUTPREPARE AND OUTWORK YOUR OPPONENT
Preparation has been instrumental to Norco’s success over the years. Much of the credit for that goes to Angene, a football coach who started coaching softball because of his daughter Nicole.
Angene studies and breaks down softball game film with the same passion football coaches do. Angene said he was up until midnight this week watching any available footage on El Modena.
Norco faced El Modena earlier this year (a 5-4 loss in the Dave Kops Tournament of Champions title game) and last season (a 4-2 win in the co-championship game of the Michelle Carew Classic). Before the start of Tuesday afternoon’s practice, Angene presented every player who appeared in those games an index card that included a pitch-by-pitch breakdown of every at-bat.
“Some players don’t know what to do with it,” Angene joked about the index cards, “But we’ve had several players over the year who would get upset and ask me, ‘Hey, where are our cards?’ “
Norco’s advance scouting methods have infuriated a handful of opposing fans. After one playoff game in 2012, a parent from the opposing team shouted out, “You only win because you scout!”
“We want to put our players in the best possible position to succeed,” Robinson said. “So, if we have the information to do that, we’re going to use it and have our players prepared.”
Angene believes one of the staff’s strengths is identifying weakness, and that includes their own players along with the opposition’s. Windham and Angene throw batting practice twice a week.
“We are trying to simulate exactly what a game is going to be like,” Windham said about those front-toss batting sessions. “So like the opponent, we are throwing pitches trying to get you out.”
Some believe Norco softball teams must practice long hours every day to enjoy the success they have. That’s not the case. Most practices are set up to last between 90 minutes to two hours.
“You don’t have to run players into the ground,” Robinson said. “Keep it simple, do the work that needs to be done and go home. We took Monday off this week. Some people called me crazy.”
‘DON’T SUCK’
Those words have become a lasting mantra for the Norco softball program. They aren’t credited to Belichick. They are part of a phrase Windham often said to her three children who are athletes.
There is a high bar set by previous teams, and every player who wears a Norco softball jersey knows those expectations.
“When you think Norco, your brain automatically goes to softball,” said Mikayla Allee, who was the shortstop on the 2015 and 2018 championship teams. “That’s awesome knowing I was part of that.
“But when I came here, I knew I had to earn my spot and prove myself. There are so many amazing players at Norco. And if you don’t get the job done, there’s always someone ready to step up.”
The goal every year is to add more paint to an outfield wall that currently displays the program’s six section championships, three mythical state titles and two mythical national championships.
It can be an intimidating visual for opposing teams, but also for some of the players who are new to the program. Junior pitcher Peyton May felt that after she transferred to Norco last season.
“You feel some pressure, of course, because of what so many other teams in the past have done,” May said. “But you realize you’re here for a reason, too, and you can write the next chapters.”
CIF-SS DIVISION 1 SOFTBALL FINAL
Norco (28-3) vs. El Modena (22-8), 7 p.m. Saturday at Barber Park, Irvine
IE Varsity info: Norco has reached the section championship game for the 10th time and seeks the program’s seventh championship and first since 2019. The top-seeded Cougars advanced with wins over Oaks Christian, Chino Hills and No. 4-seeded Ayala. Norco has arguably the best 1-2 pitching combo in the state this season, and sophomore Coral Williams and junior Peyton May could find themselves inside the circle Saturday night. Williams is 16-0 with a 0.68 ERA and 143 strikeouts in 102 2/3 innings, and May is 12-2 with a 1.43 ERA and 138 strikeouts in 83 innings. Sophomore shortstop Leighton Gray leads the team with a .455 average and has eight homers and 25 RBIs. Senior left fielder Tamryn Shorter is batting .407 and leads the team with nine homers and 37 runs scored. Senior catcher Ashley Duran is hitting .438 with six homers and a team-high 34 RBIs, and senior right fielder Dakota Potter is batting .420 with four home runs. Junior second baseman Sasha Pham has knocked in seven runs in the playoffs from the No. 9 spot in the lineup. El Modena is making its fourth appearance in a section final and seeks the program’s second title. The Vanguards advanced with wins over two-time defending champion Garden Grove Pacifica, Rosary, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, and Temescal Canyon. Senior Sara Pinedo (17-4, 1.98 ERA) is expected to be in the circle for the Vanguards, but junior Ashley Driskill (5-4, 3.99 ERA) also has been called on in the playoffs. The offensive standout is senior second baseman Kaitlyn Galasso, who leads the teams with a .484 average, 12 home runs and 32 RBIs.
Prediction: Norco
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