A Study in Culture
Jim Sumner, GoDuke the Magazine
Culture. One dictionary definition reads “the shared beliefs, values, customs, norms and behaviors of a group of people, passed down through generations.”
Duke softball hasn’t been around long enough to pass anything down through generations, unless we use a sports-centric definition of a generation as lasting only a few years.
But there’s no doubt that successful sports programs pass down shared values from one team to another, coaches shouldering some of the load but players performing crucial peer-to-peer work.
And that’s peer-to-peer work in a changing 2025 environment in which NIL, the transfer portal, agents, conference realignment, court cases and other variables seemingly change the landscape every season.
Marissa Young seems to have figured it out. The only head coach the Duke program has ever had, her almost out-of-the-box success has been well chronicled. But that doesn’t make it any less remarkable. Duke was 23-4 in 2020, the program’s third season, before coronavirus canceled the season. Duke made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2021, made the College World Series in 2024, won the ACC Tournament the same year and has averaged 44.8 wins against 12.4 losses over the last five seasons, all NCAA Tournament seasons.
You don’t achieve that level of success without recruiting, developing and keeping high-level talent.
Ana Gold is one of those high-level talents.
Gold grew up in Ballston Spa, N.Y., about 15 miles from Schenectady. Her father Eric played baseball at Tusculum College in Tennessee, while her mother Julie played basketball at Maria College in New York. Older brother Luke was a baseball standout at Boston College and is currently in the Tigers organization. Younger brother Joe pitches for Boston College.
Three siblings, three ACC athletes.
Ana played basketball through her sophomore year in high school, after which she made the decision to stick with softball.
I wasn’t bad at basketball. I was talented. But I always knew that in softball, I was so much more talented and I knew that playing softball would help me so much more in the future, especially if I went to a school like Duke.~ Ana Gold
It was the right call. By her senior year she was ranked as one of the nation’s top 40 players. She also was — and is — an outstanding student, a member of the National Honor Society at Ballston Spa High School and an academic All-ACC selection at Duke.
Gold could have gone anywhere. Her brother made sure the BC coaches knew about her early on and she did go to some camps there. But ultimately it was not her best option.
Why Duke?
My parents always instilled in us to work hard in school, to get good grades. That’s one of the reasons my brother went to BC, which is also a high academic school. There are no promises. Making sure that you get a good, four-year degree is ultimately one of the reasons I chose Duke. Yes, there’s pro softball and I’m so fortunate that I’m able to play on. But right now it’s not at the point where it can be your only job. I chose a school that would set me up in the future.~ Ana Gold
Gold was an instant contributor when she arrived at Duke four years ago. She batted .311, with 10 home runs as a freshman in 2022. That remains a school record for home runs by a freshman.
Hitting home runs is her super power. She’s only 5-7 but leaves Duke as the school’s career leader, with 54 homers. She controls the strike zone, is a superb athlete and has a repeatable swing that rarely leaves her off-balance.
Gold hit two grand slams in an 18-0 win over North Dakota State in 2024 and homered against Alabama in last season’s Women’s College World Series. She homered three times in this season’s NCAA Tournament regionals.
Again, in the portal universe, she could have gone anywhere.
Gold says she never considered hitting the portal.
“I’m a big loyalty person. Coach Young believed in me. From the first time I came to campus on a visit I knew that committing here I was going to be a part of a program that is building and I wanted to leave a legacy for myself and my teammates. In the future this is going to be a softball powerhouse and I think we are on the way to that.”
It’s not just that.
These teammates, my teammates, are like sisters. Leaving them? I couldn’t do that.~ Ana Gold
Which brings us back to culture and the transmission of culture.
“I think it’s just excellence,” she says. “Everything we do in our lives, whether it’s on the softball field, in the classroom, outside of either of those, just making sure we’re being the best versions of ourselves and always taking the next step, getting to class five minutes early and sitting in the first row or two.
“We hold each other accountable. If a teammate gets on me about something I’m not doing right, I’m not going to get mad at them because I know that their best interest is to make me better.”
She uses the example of picking up and disposing of a piece of trash on the ground as opposed to passing it by. Little habits that lead to excellence.
How do you transmit that culture to newcomers?
First, acknowledging that it’s going to be hard, that you’re going to be pushed. Realizing that you’re going to step off this campus a better person, a better version of yourself than when you first got here. A lot of people don’t like being uncomfortable and you have to tell them we’re all uncomfortable and that’s okay.~Ana Gold
A lot of this happens off the field, out of the classroom.
“We love to go out to eat together, a couple of us have apartments with a pool and we’ll do a pool day here and there. Getting to know your teammates off the field builds trust and that builds trust on the field.”
It all starts with Coach Young, of course.
“I think just having her as a strong, independent, successful woman as our head coach is so inspiring. She’s taught me a lot and I know I’ve grown so much in the last four years and a big part of it is due to her and her accountability and the high standards she holds for us. I can look at myself in the mirror and say I’m proud of myself and who I am.”
Gold is an example of someone who spent their entire college career at Duke. Pitcher Dani Drogemuller is an example of someone who didn’t.
She’s from Frankfort, Ill., a Chicago suburb. She missed her entire senior season and summer ball season to coronavirus in 2020. She says she probably cried harder than anyone else on the team when the season was canceled. She broke a foot during her freshman season at Pittsburgh. She persevered, had success as a starter and reliever, graduated in three years and decided to enter the portal.
“I loved my time there,” she says of her three years at Pitt. “It was great. But after I had graduated from there, I thought it was time for a change and I wanted to win. That’s all that an athlete can ask for, to win and be successful.
I remember when I was on the phone with Coach Young and she asked me what I wanted in my next program and I said I wanted to go to the World Series and that’s exactly what happened and I’m forever grateful for my experience.~ Dani Drogemuller
Drogemuller joined a staff that included 2024 ACC Pitcher of the Year Jala Wright, Lillie Walker and Cassidy Curd. She only pitched 42.1 innings last season, although she did pitch in the College World Series, which she calls the highlight of her career.
Wright and Walker graduated and Drogemuller joined Curd as Duke’s top two in the circle. She led the team in appearances and innings pitched this season, while winning 18 games against nine losses.
Pittsburgh hasn’t had a lot of success in softball. Their only NCAA Tournament appearance came in 2015. Drogemuller is well positioned to articulate the differences between a program that wins and one that doesn’t.
I think a lot of it is attributable to team culture. When you get into any school that isn’t very successful, that isn’t winning, you have to look at the girls who are there. I think that’s the biggest difference for me. The girls at Duke wanted to win, they were all here for the right reasons and we were all bought into the same plan. That’s the number one factor that attributed to Duke’s success. People believed in the program, wanted to win.~ Dani Drogemuller
Drogemuller expands on Duke’s winning culture.
“I think we have a really inclusive environment here. The moment I stepped on campus I felt like I had known these girls for years, had been playing with them for years, even though I hadn’t. I came here knowing nobody and I have so many lifelong friends I’ve made here. It’s definitely both the coaches and the girls but I would say mainly the girls.”
Gold graduated with a degree in psychology. She was selected ninth in the inaugural four-team Athletes Unlimited Softball League draft. She’ll play for the Blaze. She plans on going to grad school in business and is looking for a grad assistant role.
She says she’ll spend a year or two “really figuring out what my calling is to make the world a better place and impact those around me. I have thought about coaching.”
Drogemuller finished Duke with a graduate degree in business management and has a job lined up in medical marketing back in Illinois. But she also wants to keep softball in her life, tutoring and mentoring at first but with long-term ambitions of coaching at the collegiate level.
Duke’s season didn’t end the way it wanted, with an agonizing extra-inning loss at home in a winner-take-all NCAA match against Georgia.
But Young acknowledged Gold, Drogemuller and a handful of other seniors for their contributions to her program.
“It’s tough to see this end, especially for our seniors.”
She singled out Gold.
She’s an incredible player. For her to choose Duke in its infancy stage before we could accomplish the things we’ve accomplished, I’m just forever going to have a lot of gratitude to the players like that. (They) took a chance on me, on us and this program. They wanted to come here and paved the way to get us where we are.~ Duke head coach Marissa Young