Ex-Woodbridge, UCLA and Olympic star Natasha Watley joins another Hall of Fame

Natasha Watley was introduced by her former coach Alan Dugard (Photos: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Natasha Watley, who helped lead the Bruins to one national softball championship, was already a member of the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame.

Now the former Woodbridge, UCLA and Team USA Olympic standout is a member of the Woodbridge Hall of Fame. She was inducted Saturday along with former Woodbridge athletic director and baseball coach Dave Cowen at the 2nd Annual Warrior Pride Golf and Gala Tournament.

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“I’m in the Woodbridge Hall of Fame so it’s really cool,” Watley said in an interview.

Watley played softball for Woodbridge from 1994 to 1998 and was the All-CIF Division 2 player of the year in 1998. She thanked former Woodbridge softball coach Alan Dugard, athletic department officials including Athletic Director Rick Gibson and teachers for their support and the booster club for inducting her.

“My four years at Woodbridge are the most memorable moments of my softball career just learning the game and I always think about Coach Dugard and I think about discipline,” Watley told boosters. “He has a military background, so that’s how he coached us, very military like with a routine.

“I carried that along with me. It’s so fun to see Coach Dugard because I don’t think he’s changed, he’s the exact same. I feel like this was the place that gave me opportunity and gave me exposure. I learned so much about the game.

“It was my life-long dream to go to UCLA. All the positivity led me down this long path and I always think that Woodbridge kept me grounded.”

Watley said that Cowen, the former athletic director, provided support too.

Dugard told the boosters that Watley had been on four league championship teams and one CIF championship squad and rattled off some impressive career statistics, including her batting average of more than .445 the last three seasons.

“Her senior year every time we played somebody for the last time, they would come up to me and say, ‘I’m glad that’s the last time I have to face her,”’ Dugard said.

“She was very coachable, if you told Natasha something she would nod her head and do it. If you told her to lay down a bunt, she would lay down a bunt.”

Watley, in an interview, said softball continues to be a big part of her life.

“I do anything softball related,” Watley said. “I coach my team in Japan, I’m coaching young girls, I have a non-profit so I have a league in South LA and I partner with the City of LA for under served girls.

“I just signed with MLB and I’m an MLB youth softball ambassador so I go to a lot of events around the country doing that. It’s a lot of softball, which is awesome.”

Watley is now an assistant coach for the professional softball team she used to play for.

“I played there for eight years and then the last two, I’ve been coaching,” Watley said.

Watley said she was thrilled to be back home in the city where she competed.

“It was amazing,” she said. “It’s awesome to see how much Woodbridge athletics has grown,” Watley said. “We never had an event like this.”

Watley was accompanied by her boy friend and her mother and another friend. Her father was unable to attend the event because of a conflict.,

“It was just fun to be back,” she said. “I couldn’t have planned it any better. It’s been such an amazing ride.”

Watley’s appearance in the Olympic Games will be something she will always remember. She helped lead Team USA to the gold medal in 2004 in Athens and also contributed to the team winning the silver medal in 2008 in Beijing.

“I got to represent Woodbridge, Irvine and my family,” Watley said. “Those are the biggest things when you’re playing on that stage and that arena.

“It’s all about representation and to know that you’ve worked so hard for something but that you stand for where you come from, you stand for your family, Woodbridge, Irvine, UCLA at the time and to have so many people latch on to you and cheer for you and support you because of that connection.”

Woodbridge High will also be a special place, she said.

“This is where I learned how to win, at Woodbridge, we were always contenders,” she said. “So it wasn’t that we got lucky. and it was a fluke. You learned how to compete from the very first day so I definitely feel like it was a place I learned to win for sure.”

RELATED: A look at the career of Hall of Famer Natasha Watley

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com