Beloved former softball player, Winsberg, loses life to cancer
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 27, 2002 9:00 p.m.
 UCLA Sports Information The Easton Classic is renamed the
Stacy Winsberg Memorial in her honor.
By Michael Sneag
Daily Bruin Contributor
It was more than just a quilt. It was a big “Get
well” card from the whole team, letting her know that they
were there for her.
Old Bruin shirts were sewn together to create something special.
Something to let her know that the team had her full support. It
was finished, packaged and set to be delivered. It was made with
pure love.
But Stacy never got to see it. She died the next morning.
Stacy Winsberg was a softball player with the Bruins, and won
three NCAA Championships (1982, ’84, and ’85). She
competed on the national level and eventually went on to become the
strength and conditioning coach for the U.S. Women’s National
Team at the 2000 Olympics.
Winsberg graduated from UCLA, but remained extremely close to
her Bruin family. Her devotion to her friends and family, and
especially her UCLA softball family, was evident in everything she
did
It came as a complete shock when she was diagnosed with lung
cancer in August 2000, and passed away on Dec. 12.
Her sudden death was the worst part.
“Stacy never gave in to adversity. I seriously, never, not
for one moment, thought that she wouldn’t beat this,”
head coach Sue Enquist said. “It never entered my
mind.”
Winsberg saw cancer as just another challenge and was eager to
begin the radiation and chemotherapy treatments. She wanted to beat
it just like every other obstacle she had overcome in her life:
with hard work, dedication and the support of her friends and
family.
Enquist thought up the idea of the quilt to let Winsberg know
that she had the support of the entire Bruin softball family.
Several of the players knew her personally. Seniors Amanda Freed
and Stacey Nuveman worked with her on the Olympic team. Junior
Monique Mejia had met her when she was 11 and worked with Winsberg
at a softball camp. Others hardly knew her, but they all knew of
her and they all wanted to help.
Winsberg was much more than a softball player. Her friendly face
and positive attitude were contagious. She had the ability to make
everyone around her happy.
“Stacy was my closest friend during my senior year
(1982),” assistant coach Gina Vecchione said. “She was
only a freshman, but we clicked as friends right away. She always
had a big smile on her face and was always so positive and
encouraging.”
As a softball player, her work ethic at practice was legendary.
She was always first on the field, and she had to be dragged off
it. To Winsberg, taking grounders was never a chore; it was a time
to improve her skills. She always wanted to take just one more
ground ball.
In the 1982 championship, a game that went extra innings, she
scored the winning run on a shallow sacrifice fly to right. The
throw beat her, but she wasn’t going to be denied. She
barreled into the catcher and knocked the ball loose, swiping her
hand across the plate and giving UCLA the national title.
“She wasn’t the standout player, but she was the
glue that held it all together and the oil that made the engine
go,” Vecchione said.
The annual “Gutsy Bruin Award,” handed out at the
end of the season team banquet has been renamed in her honor. The
team, and especially the coaches, felt that it was the perfect way
to pay tribute to everything Winsberg stood for.
“She loved UCLA, and she loved this program,”
Vecchione said. “She bled Blue and Gold. We want to make sure
that something permanent is displayed in the clubhouse and a plaque
is going up shortly. We want to make sure that Stacy and her family
always have a place here.”
Even as the end neared, Winsberg was always thinking of others.
She refused to allow anybody to visit her in the hospital. She
wouldn’t allow any of her softball friends to see her there.
It was her way of taking care of her friends and making sure they
remembered her as the happy, smiling person she always was.
On or off the softball field, Winsberg believed life was a game
meant to be played with a smile.
At the funeral, the quilt was laid on the casket. Although
Winsberg didn’t get to see it, everyone in attendance did. It
stirred a lot of emotions, but her family appreciated it. It was
just another reminder that Stacy Winsberg will always be remembered
as a Bruin.
