SAN DIEGO - The message rings out clearly through the USD Softball Complex, even if MJ Knighten has to shout to be heard through her face mask.
 
"Want it," the first-year head coach implores her team, "more than you fear it."
 
What "it" will ultimately be for San Diego softball remains to be seen. But with an esteemed and energetic leader at the helm, 12 new players, and a talented contingent of returners, hope is springing eternal on the Northeast point of Alcala Park. And the team certainly isn't lacking for "want," or motivation.
 
"We were kind of hoping (Knighten) would be the new hire, we love her," redshirt sophomore infielder Rion Simms said of the Toreros' offseason coaching search. "What she had to offer as an assistant was a lot, but we knew she could handle the head coaching job and guide us to be a great team."
 
Knighten, the first Black female head coach of any program at USD Athletics and the youngest active softball head coach in NCAA Division I, will attempt to bring stability to a program that has had three different head coaches in three years. The former All-American and professional fastpitch softball player provides valuable continuity, having spent the 2019-2020 campaign with the Toreros as an assistant. Yet her coaching credentials and the connection she's made with the team stand alone. One player described the team's approval of her hire as "unanimous," speaking of the tremendous respect they have for her. Another recalled shedding tears of joy when Knighten officially got the job. 
 
"Having some sort of constant and just building off of what we kind of started last year was really great," Simms added.
 
What was left behind to build off of when the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly ended the 2020 season was a 15-12 record with no conference play to use as a measuring stick. Both Knighten and her players are adamant, however, that somewhere along the line in that shortened season, something clicked for USD.
 
"The returners who were here last year, they saw a pivotal moment, they saw the tide changing in a good way," Knighten said.
 
To Simms, who started 18 of San Diego's 27 contests a year ago, that moment came following the conclusion of a particularly difficult stretch of non-conference games that included a bout with No. 16 Arizona State and an exhibition against the USA Olympic Team.
 
"I felt like after leaving that tournament, something just clicked, and we were like, 'We can compete with these teams,'" the middle infielder said. "We came to this realization that we can be that good, we can be a championship team. I just saw a switch. We became more competitive and we came out a lot stronger."
 
So in a season in which the Toreros will add as many new players as they will return, it will be that mindset, that confidence that the team will try to recapture. They will try to build off of that momentum without ace pitcher Delaney Heller, who graduated last spring, without star second baseman Sara Silveyra and catcher Madison Casiano, who started all 27 games behind the dish for USD in 2020. At Knighten's disposal to fill their places are 10 freshmen, two transfers, and 12 returners — a diverse group that she is more than confident will succeed in 2021.
 
"I see this whole roster being scrappy," said Knighten. "We're a scrappy bunch…I remember I used to always hate playing scrappy teams when I was in college because they always know when to fight back, when to punch back. And that's what I see this whole team doing and this whole roster doing, one through 24."
 
More specifically speaking, Heller's role in the circle will be filled by committee, and the Toreros will make the most out of their newfound depth — numbers-wise — to bolster their pitching. Knighten mentioned that as many as eight players could comprise the staff, though it will be headlined by redshirt sophomore righty Madison Earnshaw, who threw the program's first no-hitter since 2016 last February.
 
"No one can replace Delaney, she was great," Knighten said. "So we're going in a different direction this year. We're going to be using all eight of our pitchers' strengths to our advantage and making sure that we can use them in the best way possible in whatever situation that may be."
 
The Toreros' plan to fill the newly vacant second base position is more simple. Rion Simms will slide over one spot from shortstop in what should mark an easy transition for the redshirt sophomore.
 
"I really like playing second, it's actually my favorite position," Simms said with a hint of excitement after stressing that she'd be happy to play anywhere on the diamond. "I actually played there for most of high school…I've always felt the most comfortable there."
 
And at catcher, four players — transfer AJ Kaiser, true freshman Lily Gallardo, and redshirt freshmen Clareese Santiago and Elisa Princic — will vie for the starting job. According to Knighten, it will simply be a matter of who separates themselves most from the group in the run-up to the season. Depth at catcher, however, is a welcome luxury for any coach.
 
"Right now they're battling it out," Knighten said of USD's catching situation. "It's open right now. Whoever wants to step up and take that spot, they can take it. They're all putting up a good fight…"
 
Beyond those three positions, USD's coach also identified several true freshmen who have made strong impressions in the offseason, and will figure to be key in the Toreros' success in 2021. Malia Benson was lauded by Knighten for her athleticism in the outfield and her speed on the basepaths. Amanda Limon — nicknamed "Shorty" due to her stature (one of two players on the team under 5-foot-3) — received kudos for her confidence and swagger at shortstop. And Sofia Delgado, described as "raw" and "scrappy," impressed with her defense, particularly at third base.
 
"It's nice to see that," Knighten said. "They're getting there, those three are definitely the ones that have been impressing me in the offseason and right now during preseason."
 
Simms, a redshirt sophomore and team captain, has been charged, in part, with helping mold that group of younger players into a winner. Her two-year career as a Torero so far has given the infielder pitcher plenty of experience and knowledge on what it takes to succeed in Division I softball, and should prove invaluable for a roster that may lean toward the inexperienced side. So, when Simms looks at San Diego's 2021 non-conference schedule, what does she see?
 
"It looks really exciting," Simms said. "We're playing some really big teams like UCLA, who we've seen a lot…some of these big teams are what we need to see to be the best we can be. I'm very excited for this team, especially some of the new talent we have — a lot of freshmen — to see what college ball is like, compete with these teams, because I know we can, and carry that confidence we're building into those games…"
 
And as she squints and adjusts her gaze to the West Coast Conference slate of games that San Diego never got to realize a year ago?
 
"I don't see anything special or anything that we can't beat or compete with," the middle infielder added. "I feel like we can definitely take a WCC Championship if we truly carry this championship mindset we're working on and continue to build off that."
 
If the Toreros are to make that championship mindset a reality and capture a WCC title, it will be the first in program history. Something that's not lost on redshirt junior Halle Kyler, another team captain who has excelled both in the infield and in the circle for USD in her three-year career so far.
 
"That would be amazing, that would mean a lot," Kyler said. "Especially since we have a new head coach. I think we just need to get after it. Keep heading up this mountain that we're going and make it to the top, which hopefully ends in a WCC Championship, and then on to NCAA Regionals."
 
Ask Kyler, Simms, or Knighten what will be most important in achieving that lofty goal and bringing that WCC trophy back to the USD Softball Complex, and you'll get a unified answer. Have heart. Hustle. Be scrappy. Want it more than you fear it.
 
"You put your heart above anything else, and your hustle shows that too," Kyler said of the mindset she and her teammates strive for. "It doesn't matter if you have any fear, because your desire to win and accomplish your goals will trump anything that you're afraid of. Especially if you have your teammates and your coaches next to you."
 
Knighten will continue stressing those tenets — among many other things — to her players across the infield dirt as the offseason winds down, her words perhaps louder than ever both literally and figuratively.
 
Have heart. Hustle. Be scrappy. Want it more than you fear it. She'll keep reinforcing that right until first pitch on Wednesday against San Diego State when the 2021 season, the Toreros' pursuit of their first WCC Championship, and a new era of USD softball will all begin.
 
And Knighten's players, she hopes, will show that they heard her all along, loud and clear.