The year is 1980.

UCLA’s softball program, helmed by now-Hall of Famers head coach Sharron Backus and assistant coach Sue Enquist, is just in its sixth year of existence.

Meanwhile, future UCLA players-turned-coaches Kelly Inouye-Perez and Lisa Fernandez are meeting each other on a softball field for the very first time when they are both just 10 years old.

“We were on a ball field and we needed a pickup player, and they called this player and brought her in from another team, and that was the first time I met Kelly,” Fernandez said.

Fast forward over four decades and 12 national championships later, UCLA softball is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025. And within that time frame, Inouye-Perez and Fernandez have both managed to carve out legacies as star Bruin players who returned home to coach the winningest softball program in the nation, which Inouye-Perez said she is proud to helm.

The tandem started out as a classic collegiate duo, with Fernandez pitching and Inouye-Perez catching, and blossomed into two national championships in 1990 and 1992.

Then came talks about their futures.

“We had a very real conversation saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to be Sue and Sharron one day and have us be coaches at UCLA?’” Fernandez said. “That was something that we dreamt about doing and talked about doing when we were athletes in the uniform.”

Today, Inouye-Perez and Fernandez’s aspirations have come full circle as the program’s head coach and associate head coach, respectively, helping spearhead a coaching staff that leads perennial championship contenders.

In a coaching partnership that spans nearly three decades at UCLA, Inouye-Perez and Fernandez have added five more NCAA championships to the program’s trophy cabinet.

And Enquist, who may have influenced the pair’s transition from the field to the dugout, was actually Backus’ protege before becoming head coach alongside her.

A member of UCLA softball’s inaugural squad in 1975, Enquist contributed to the Bruins’ very first national championship in 1978 as the AIAW tournament’s leading hitter.

And after her college career concluded, Enquist quickly took a job under Backus as an assistant coach for nine seasons before transitioning into the co-head coach role in 1989.

When Enquist ended her coaching career with a decadelong stint as the sole head coach from 1997 to 2006, she had been a part of coaching staffs that helped capture 10 NCAA championships, several of which featured Inouye-Perez and Fernandez.

When reflecting upon half a century of Bruin softball excellence, what seems to have contributed most to a winning culture is the tradition of championship-winning alumni returning to Westwood and mentoring the next generation of Bruin softball players.

And while this lineage began with Backus and Enquist, Inouye-Perez and Fernandez are the latest icons of a UCLA head coaching dynasty.

Inouye-Perez said she is thankful for the opportunity to maintain UCLA’s tradition of success alongside Fernandez.

Both coaches admire how their dreams have become a reality.

“We’re like, ‘Can you believe that we actually said that out loud when we were at UCLA?’” Fernandez said. “Here we are, so many years later – we’re basically Sue and Sharron.”

As one looks toward the future and imagines what the next 50 years of Bruin softball could possibly look like, it is reasonable to wonder: Who could be the heir to the Bruins’ head coaching legacy?

As history has it, that answer might just be in the Bruin dugout.

Bubba Nickles. 2019 NCAA champion at UCLA. First-year assistant coach. She boasts the resume to join the famed coaching lineage.

“Bubba is definitely one that’s currently in the process,” Fernandez said.

After playing under Inouye-Perez and Fernandez for four seasons, Nickles spent the next three seasons playing professionally in the Athletes Unlimited League before joining the UCLA coaching staff as an assistant.

Nickles’ homegrown status and breadth of experience make her a compelling candidate as the next leader of UCLA softball. And her assistant coaching role shows she may be ready to take the next step.

But Nickles said she knows there are some large shoes to fill if the opportunity were to arise.

“I was 100% nervous (about becoming an assistant coach), just because I know how much experience they (Inouye-Perez and Fernandez) have,” Nickles said. “And they’re like moms to me because they coached me as a college athlete, so there was a little bit of pressure that I would put on myself about how I needed to live up to the standard that they have.”

Nevertheless, Nickles said she has been able to put those nerves aside and learn from Inouye-Perez and Fernandez.

And there is plenty to absorb.

“I’m seeing sides of them that I didn’t get to see as a player,” Nickles said. “And seeing how they operate, … how they communicate and how they go back and forth on ideas – it’s really powerful to me because it really feels like a family.”

Nickles added that family is precisely the foundation on which UCLA’s coaching tradition has been built all along.

Regardless of who bears the responsibility of UCLA softball’s head coaching legacy, it is likely they will embody the Bruins’ lasting culture of loyalty and family.

“It’s important that we keep people who are lifers in the game and help build their knowledge and help build their skills, so that whoever decides to take over the program, the program is going to be in great hands,” Fernandez said.