Longhorns legend Cat Osterman to establish an 'identity' with Austin-area softball team

Nairavoice | Jun 7, 2026 Jun 7, 2026 518 0 8 min read

Longhorns legend Cat Osterman to establish

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The AUSL is calling Central Texas its home for the 2026 season. The American-Statesman is publishing a multipart series to introduce fans locally and nationally to the Texas Volts, who will play in Round Rock with former Longhorns star Cat Osterman serving as general manager. Here is Part 1.

Cat Osterman is one of the most experienced, distinguished players in Texas softball history, if not all of U.S. softball history.

But even after earning three Olympic medals, three USA Softball collegiate player of the year awards and three trips to the Women’s College World Series, she didn’t think she was qualified to run a pro softball team.

The former Athletes Unlimited pitcher was named an advisor in June 2024 to the upcoming softball league that would tour the country in the summer of 2025. While the league searched for general managers, fellow AUSL advisor Jennie Finch suggested Osterman, her former Olympic teammate, throw her name in the interview process.

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TEXAS VOLTS AT OKLAHOMA CITY SPARK

When/where: 6 p.m. Tuesday in Oklahoma City.

TV: ESPN2.

“She was like a statistician,” Finch told the Statesman last month. “I feel like back in the day she knew everybody, knew all of their stats …”

The suggestion took Osterman aback.

“We were interviewing a lot of people who are significantly older than I am,” Osterman said in March. “So for me, I was like, “Do I fit in what they are looking for?'”

Osterman, 43, last played in 2021, winning a silver medal with Team USA at the Tokyo Olympics and pitching 23 games for Athletes Unlimited. After playing, she started calling softball games for ESPN and the SEC Network. Now she’s entering her second year as the general manager — despite never working in a front office before for the Volts — who are preparing for their first season in Round Rock just north of Austin and the university where Osterman began her legendary career.

After seeking some information from AUSL Commissioner Kim Ng about what being a GM would entail, Osterman realized she did fit the mold.

“Cat is an incredible ambassador and her network is vast. It was a no brainer,” Ng said in January.

Finch laughed when recalling Osterman stepping forward as the manager for the Volts.

“Not to make it too Texas-y, but she really grabbed the bull by the horns and dove right into that general manager role,” she said.

Recounting Osterman’s days in the NPF

Athletes Unlimited announced in 2024 that a softball league will join its other professional sports: basketball and volleyball.

Founded in 2020, Athletes Unlimited uses a player-centric model with the stated goal of elevating the visibility of women’s sports. The AUSL has the added benefit of having a partnership with Major League Baseball — a change from previous iterations of professional softball. Past organizations, including the National Pro Fastpitch, which started in 2004 as one of the country’s most prominent softball leagues, were self-funded.

“There was no financial backing to secure the league,” former Team USA pitcher Cheri Kempf said.

Now the chief broadcast officer and executive producer for the AUSL, Kempf has also been a broadcaster and became the first commissioner for the NPF in 2007. The year before, Osterman was the NPF’s No.1 overall draft pick and played for the Rockford Thunder. Because she didn’t earn enough to live on her Thunder salary, Osterman coached to supplement her income. Plus, the Thunder had workarounds to save money.

As a rookie, the Houston native and a few teammates lived in a house that they called the Love Shack. Her second year, she was in a “gross apartment.”

“That was technically across the border, in what, Wisconsin,” she said.

After bringing a championship to Rockford in 2009, the team folded.

“I didn’t question stability of the league as a whole, really, because … I was trying to be the best softball player I could,” Osterman said. “I wasn’t looking at the business side at all. It just had no interest to me at the time, so I wasn’t wondering year after year if we’re going to still have a league.”

In 2010 Osterman signed with the USSSA Pride where she “made enough to live.” That year, she came back to Texas for a rare series in her home state, at Dell Diamond in Round Rock against Finch’s Chicago Bandits.

Longhorns legend Cat Osterman to establish

“This is the moment we dreamt of,” Finch told the Statesman in May. “As far as, in a way, the sports world opening up their doors, especially baseball being brother-sister sports, embracing our game and then giving us the platform to compete, play and be able to sell out.”

Bringing softball back home

Originally marketed as a weekend series during the 2010 season between Finch and Osterman, two legendary pitchers, Osterman couldn’t participate because she hurt her arm. But the series 16 years ago in the Triple A home of the Round Rock Express went on; Osterman signed autographs and interacted with the fans. It was a small signal of the interest softball has in Central Texas.

“(The Round Rock Express) wanted to give these ladies a Major League Baseball experience,” recalled Chris Almendarez, the ball club’s president. “So they were in our clubhouses, and we treated them just like we would treat the Round Rock Express player,”

After the three days, Osterman left a signed softball at the facility, thanking Almendarez for the work that he had done. But she also left a message.

“Let’s get a team here so I can come home,” Osterman wrote.

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Their paths would cross over the years and the prospect of bringing a softball team to Texas would always come up. Eventually, the idea gained momentum. Almendarez and Express owner Reid Ryan met with Ng to discuss what having four games would look like on a baseball diamond.

“We kind of told her (Ng) ‘you guys do all the marketing as far as operating … We got this. We own a turf company too that can convert the field, and the stars aligned,” he said.

Cat Osterman: ‘That’s my team, right?’

Osterman joked that when she heard Round Rock was going to be a stop for the AUSL’s barnstorming tour in 2025 it was, “going to be easy” to see the hunger the region has for pro softball. Last season, four AUSL games were played at Dell Diamond, the largest venue the league visited that season, from July 17-20.

When the barnstorming tour schedule was made, Ng said, the Round Rock stop had all the ingredients “for a great story.”

“Dell Diamond is a top minor league ballpark, the great stronghold Texas has in the softball landscape,” Ng said in January. “I told colleagues this is going to be a really interesting place.”

The Saturday game broke the league attendance record with 6,500 people, though the league didn’t publicize exact figures; it was also the largest softball crowd in the state of Texas. The success gave Osterman an idea.

“I was like (to Ng) ‘When they become a city, that’s my team right?'” she joked.

In January, the AUSL announced that instead of touring, teams would have their own home stadiums. Ng said it was extraordinarily difficult to pick places where the teams would be — except for Round Rock.

“This market was about as easy a decision as there could have been,” Ng said in January.

After one year leading the Volts, they were heading home full time. The initial season as GM didn’t go as planned for Osterman; the team went 8-16. Excluding the 2004 season when she redshirted to participate in the Olympics, Osterman never lost more than 13 games in a season at Texas.

“The hardest part was just watching and knowing that I had no way to change the outcome,” she said. “As much as I wanted to for everyone, for my staff, for my girls … I just didn’t have a hand in changing the outcome.”

The Volts finished third in the standings, 10 games behind the Talons who won the championship.

“I think there were assumptions that I made, and as a GM, you need to make sure you cover your bases, and assuming doesn’t cover your bases,” she said.

For example, Osterman believed she, everyone on the roster and in the front office were familiar with each other. But that wasn’t the case and she said the lack of familiarity hurt the Volts in the long run. She was present around the team, but didn’t want to micromanage. During exit interviews, however, her players told her maybe she gave a bit too much space.

“Talking especially with the pitchers, a couple of them are like, ‘It wouldn’t be bad if you’re around and watching the bullpen or telling someone, I think you can do this with your pitch sequences,'” Osterman said.

Entering Year 2 as GM — and Year 1 based in the Austin area she’s spent so much time in over the years — Osterman has another chief goal before the season opens Tuesday against the Oklahoma City Sparks.

“Now that we have a home, it’s about creating an identity here in Texas,” she said.

And she found the coach to help do it.

Part 2 of our series introducing the AUSL to Central Texas will be published Thursday.

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