Florida Gators In the Olympics: Aubree Munro, Softball
It was 2004; the Team USA Olympic softball team was on their pre-games tour, ahead of the Athens games. Excitement was palpable with the Olympics back where they'd began centuries ago. The celebration was on worldwide. Red, white and blue was everywhere in the United States, schools steered most lessons towards the Olympics and after watching Team USA softball in her hometown, a young Aubree Munro was enthralled. She had to be a part of that team one day.
“It’s what I dreamed of when I was a kid,” reflects Munro. “[In 2004], that's when I first started dreaming of playing for Team USA, every school project that year was red, white and blue themed. I couldn't get enough of it.
“I remember doing, like ‘what do you want to be when you grow up’ kind of thing and I [drew] ‘one day I will be an Olympian’ and I drew a little picture of myself and what I thought a USA jersey would look like with a one on it.”
But fate threw Munro and softball fans everywhere a loop, when the IOC [International Olympic Committee] cut the sport from the games. This summer, it makes it’s triumphant return to the world stage. And Munro, the former Florida Gator catcher, will suit up for Team USA in that No. 1 jersey she drew 17 years ago.
As she dons the red, white and blue however, there will be so much more Munro carries with her to Japan than a childhood dream. Preparing to leave for Tokyo and the 2020 (2021) Olympic Games, Munro sat down with GatorBait Magazine and others to reflect on her path to this point.
After the games took away softball, Munro was forced to change her dream. So the California native put her focus and energy into playing elite college ball. She did just that and more, winning two National Championships with the Gators. Munro also set a few individual records for herself.
“My dream kind of shifted towards college I ended up at Florida had the career of a lifetime.”
She is one of nine Gators in history to record a perfect fielding percentage (minimum 50 chances) in a season. As a junior, she did not made an error in 354 chances behind the plate in 2015. For that matter, Munro committed just one error in her final two seasons (874 chances) and made only four miscues in 1,423 chances during her career. That mark ranks tied for second in school history.
Not only did Munro leave an indelible mark on the Florida Gators program, but it her as well. After graduating in 2016, Munro was selected for Team USA. She has won two gold medals at the World Championships (2016 and 2018). In 2019, she was named to the Olympic team.
“When they named the team it was just an absolute dream come true, really emotional. And just really special. We all have families that have been a part of this for a really long time so it's not just my dream it's like my family's dream.”
That family extends to the Gators and the fans she made along the way in Gainesville. Softball fans she met while in Orange and Blue now come support Munro and the team in the flag colors. It’s an honor she doesn’t take lightly, heading into Tokyo.
“I knew that there was going to come a time when no one was going to really care who I was anymore. I wanted to take every opportunity to just kind of be a good ambassador for myself, [the] Florida Gators and now Team USA. So take it pretty seriously.”
Each and every iconic moment in which Munro has found herself with Team USA, she’s been able to draw on her experience with the Gators and Head Coach Tim Walton to help her through.
"I just felt really prepared for adversity and I know what it takes to win, I'm not scared of those big moments,” explains Munro, the starting catcher for the 2014 and 2015 back-to-back National Championship teams.
“I have a lot of experience in winning and I think that's something that you don't always know how to put value on it. But as I find myself in big moments, repeatedly, you know—we won Worlds in 2016; we won worlds in 2018, something that hadn't hadn't happened for USA in a very long time, and…those moments are my favorite moments and I think that's something I really learned at Florida competing under Coach Walton.
“He really preached to us about, ‘the team that can make this big moment the most normal is a team that's probably going to succeed.’ And so being able to feel normal in those big moments while still taking in the excitement and taking in, like the gravity of the situation, but, while at the same time being able to maintain, just like a steady heartbeat and just knowing who I am and try not to get too big—I think I learned a lot of that in my time at Florida.”
Now Munro—along with other former Gators Kelsey Stewart and Michelle Moultrie are settling into the Olympic Village in Tokyo. It’s a dream coming true, leaping out of the picture Aubree Munro drew in 2004 and into reality. And if she wins gold there will be no small part that is thanks to her time with the Florida Gators.
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