Jocelyn Forest just keeps winning.

The 5-foot, 4-inch softball sensation blew them away at Righetti High in the late 1990s. She won a national championship at Cal Berkeley in 2002. She won at the professional level and then kicked off her college coaching career by leading Boston University to an American East title.

And now she's joining one of the nation's strongest softball conferences - the Big Ten. She also joins a coaching staff led by Robin Petrini, who recently won her 300th college game.

Forest just keeps winning, and now she becomes a part of a Penn State team that has known nothing else.

In July, Penn State hired Forest to be its new assistant softball coach, a position that will involve working with the Nittany Lions' pitching staff, among other duties.

Forest will instruct a team that plays in the ultra-competitive Big Ten conference. The Nittany Lion's went 39-17 overall last year and earned their sixth NCAA appearance in the past seven years. The pitching staff ranked 12th in the nation in ERA (1.36), but it did lose Missy Beseres, who broke the record for career victories. In her senior year, she tossed 746 career strikeouts.

Once Forest made the trip to Penn State, the decision was a no-brainer, according to Righetti softball coach Richard Cornejo.

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“She had no plans on leaving Boston University after her first year,” Cornejo said. “Petrini contacted her about going to Penn State, but she wasn't thinking about it. But her professional coach and the girls she played with went up to her and said ‘Why not? It's Penn State!'”

So Forest flew out to see the campus and to meet the players.

“There was no decision to make. This was a big step,” Cornejo said.

Forest got her softball start posting amazing numbers at Righetti. It all came before an outstanding college career.

Most recently, Forest has turned her remarkable playing career into a coaching career. She spent last year instructing the pitching staff of Boston University, including second team all-conference pitcher Cassidi Hardy. That team went 29-29 and broke several school records. Previously, Forest coached at Encinal High School in Alameda, Calif.

“She was the leader of her class,” Cornejo remembers. “She was very vocal, but without being bossy about the whole thing.”

Forest was also at the most recent National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) National Convention in Tucson, according to Cornejo. More than 800 college softball coaches attended the convention which included speeches from Northwestern coach Kate Drohan and Arizona assistant coach Nancy Evans. Northwestern was the national runner-up last season and Arizona is the defending national champion.

Forest got her pitching instruction from another legend, Tracy Davis (Compton). Davis was Righetti's pitching coach at the time.

At Righetti, she was the workhorse on a talented team that made the CIF finals in 1998. She became only the third player in state history to post more than 500 strikeouts in a season, fanning 507 in her junior year. She followed that year up with an even greater senior year. She was a first-team all American, going 24-5 overall with 19 shutouts and nine no-hitters. She posted a .17 earned run average.

“Other than 1989, the year Forest came out was probably the best high school pitching class in the United States,” Cornejo said.

That class included UCLA star Amanda Freed, USA Softball hurler Jennie Finch and Forest. But Forest was different. Both Freed and Finch threw heat and looked the part - both stand over 6-feet tall.

Forest only stood 5-4, and looked more like an aspiring artist.

“It would surprise a lot of people that she would be as good a softball player as she was,” Cornejo said. “When you looked at her, here was the lead singer of a punk band. You never knew what color her hair would be.”

Berkeley was the perfect fit for Forest.

“My wife asked her, ‘Why did you make any other trips?'” Cornejo said. “She was that type.”

Forest led the Golden Bears to four straight World Series'. She went 24-7 with a 1.32 ERA her freshman year and had an equally good sophomore season. She suffered a hip injury in the second half of that sophomore season but bounced back her junior year to compile an incredible .82 ERA and 27-9 record, with 364 strikeouts. She was a first-team all-PAC-10 selection and made the second-team all American squad.

It was her senior year that really stood out. In 2002, the Golden Bears finally broke through for a national championship with Forest pitching every game of the World Series.

But Forest's playing days were not over. She has continued to play softball when she isn't coaching.

She joined the New England Riptide, a National Pro Fastpitch team, in 2003 and played overseas in Holland, bringing the squad its first national title. In 2004, she returned to the States to post a 14-10 record with a 1.29 ERA. She led the league in strikeouts with 162 and was selected to the East all-star team.

In 2005, she went 9-4 and competed for the USA Elite team.

“We were down at a tournament last year and someone asked me to compare a pitcher to Jocelyn,” Cornejo said. “There's just no comparison.”

After all these years, Forest continues to win on the mound. Now, she'll show the Nittany Lions how she's been doing it.

January 11, 2007