When the season abruptly stopped less than halfway through the 2020 schedule, Coach Vicky Piatt's Viking softball team was on course for another 20-win season, a NorCal playoff spot, and was battling for the top spot in the Coast-South Conference. The Vikings finished 14-6 for the seventh winning season in Piatt's 11 years at the helm and boosted her overall mark to 219-179.
The 2020 squad featured one of the top recruiting classes of Piatt's tenure, with seven first-year players usually filling out the game-day lineup card. Freshman pitcher/infielder/slugger Cayla Williams was the CCCFCA State Player of the Week for the season's opening week and first-year pitcher America Maples was the CCCFCA Pitcher of the Week runnerup a week later.
In 11 seasons, Piatt's Vikings have made five playoff appearance and have won a pair of Coast-South championships. The team's academic focus has produced two CCCAA State Scholar-Athlete Award winners, Brianna Massey in 2014 and Janelle McAfee in 2018, and is one of the few programs of any sport in the CCCAA with multiple winners since the award's inception in 1984.
Vicky Galindo, as she was then known, led West Valley to the 2002 CCCAA Softball Sate Championship, earning All-America and All-Conference First Team honors along the way. After West Valley, she helped take the Cal Golden Bears to the NCAA Women's College World Series in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The infielder was a two-time Easton All-America first-teamer, a three-time All-Pac 10 and All-Region honoree, and, in 2005, a national Player of the Year nominee. She was inducted into the Cal Hall of Fame in 2015.
As a member of the USA National Team, Piatt won the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and won three straight World Cup titles from 2006-2008. She played professionally for the Chicago Bandits and was a National Professional Fastpitch All-Star from 2005-2007.
With a promising roster returning for the 2021 campaign - and a new $16million stadium complex scheduled to break ground soon - Coach Piatt and her Vikings are eager to get back to work and add to her legacy.
