ACCC champion has gone through 4 coaching changes since 2021:
GDW Analysis:
HANCEVILLE: Wallace State Community College has endured greatness in softball.
The past four seasons have seen this team on top of the Alabama Community College Conference (ACCC).
Another pattern has developed.
Wallace State will have its fourth different head coach next season since 2021.
This process began after 2021 when AJ Daugherty left the Hanceville based school and became head coach at the University of Alabama Birmingham.
Daugherty last week left UAB, bringing himself back into the conference as new athletic director at Calhoun Community College in Decatur. Daugherty takes over the Warhawk program after it was directed for quite a while under Nancy Keenum.
After Daugherty, pitching coach Carson Owens was given the nod to handle the team. He did so rather well with back to back conference championships and 108 victories under his command.
But before the start of the 2024 season, Owens stepped down. He would join Daugherty's staff as a consultant at UAB.
That changed not too long ago when Owens was hired to lead the softball program at Itawamba Community College in Fulton, Mississippi.
Taking over in what was an interim role would be assistant coach Lauren Stewart. The Lady Lions shook off some injuries and a slight letdown to roar at the end of the 2024 schedule, winning the conference crown and getting to the NJCAA nationals. Wallace was 36 & 14 with Stewart, going 19 & 5 in conference play.
Stewart's skills led to her returning to the high school ranks. Stewart is now co head coach at Satsuma, located in the Southern part of Alabama.
Stewart coached at Spanish Fort before she joined the Wallace State staff in 2023 with Owens.
Now the latest of the Wallace coaches is a former Lady Lion who has been an assistant at UAB and Jacksonville State.
Sallie Beth Burch got hired by Wallace State president Vickie Karolewics June 13.
Burch played at Wallace in 2008 and 2009 as the Lady Lions won the NJCAA championship when she was a freshman infielder.
Burch would get good teaching when she worked with Daugherty at Wallace between 2016 to 2019.
Wallace softball has been able to utilize the situation with Burch the latest to take command of a program that is recognized across the country for what it has achieved under Daugherty, Owens and Stewart since 2021.
Fall practice for Wallace softball will begin with Burch once the fall semester begins in the middle of August.
Photo of Wallace State softball in their final series at Bobby McCracken Stadium vs. Calhoun CC May 2.
GDW photo by Johnny Thornton
