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Photo by Kyle Parmley.
Liberty Park Middle School softball coach Joy Bragan meets with players in a game against Pizitz Middle on April 4.
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Photo by Kyle Parmley.
Pizitz pitcher Nikki Hammond. Pizitz coach Bill Mann has emphasized to his team to enjoy the middle school experience, knowing that not all of them will actually play softball beyond their middle school years.
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Photos by Kyle Parmley.
Pizitz’s Sydney Harris, right, and Liberty Park’s Bella Shimko in a play at third base.
Fans will not be lining up outside of a locked gate hours before first pitch. For most games, a single set of bleachers is nowhere close to full. Social media won’t explode with admonition and criticism after every game.
But to count the jobs of Joy Bragan and Bill Mann as not significant would be a mistake, and a grand one at that.
Bragan and Mann are the middle school softball coaches at the two Vestavia Hills High School feeder schools. Bragan is in her 13th year in the Vestavia Hills City Schools system and her sixth at Liberty Park Middle School. Mann is in his second year coaching at Pizitz Middle School.
Both coaches have the wherewithal and perspective to realize their jobs are not as results-driven as jobs at the high school, college and professional levels. There is a bigger picture to coaching the seventh- and eighth-graders they get to influence on a daily basis.
“My ultimate goal is to develop their character and connect and develop relationships with them,” Bragan said. “They know that when life gets hard, if they ever need somebody, I care. I get them for two seasons, so I’m packing their bags for life.”
Bragan said she certainly attempts to give her players the “softball tools they need to come be successful here,” as evidenced by Liberty Park’s fifth-place finish in the Metro Tournament, the best in school history.
“We all fail, but I want to be a godly example for them, so that they look back over their middle school career and think, ‘Coach Bragan may not have known a lot about softball, but she cared about me,’” Bragan said.
Mann emphasized enjoying the middle school experience for his team, knowing that not all of them will actually play softball beyond their middle school years.
“The truth is, they’re not [all going to play in high school],” Mann said. “Some of them will; some of them won’t. I want all of them to look back and go, ‘Middle school softball was awesome.’”
The two teams faced off against each other April 4 in a contest Pizitz won 14-0. Throughout the game, it was apparent that Pizitz would win easily, but instead of slogging through to the end, Bragan used the game as a teaching moment.
“How are we going to respond?” she asked her team after a long second inning. “We’re either going to rise up or we’re going to cave in.”
If any team knows how to respond to adversity, it’s the Liberty Park team. After watching fellow teammate Bella Shimko and Bragan each battle and beat cancer last year, the adversity of a ball game pales in comparison to the adversities of life.
“That’s why you play sports,” Bragan said. “It’s about life. What [Shimko] experienced is real life. Curveballs are going to come. Adversity’s going to come. But that’s why you play sports. It teaches you about life. I’m really proud of them. They work hard, and they’re committed.”
On that Liberty Park team, Ella Brast and Braelynn Bruce played right field. Lily Dunaway pitched, played third and the outfield. Margaret Gilchrist played first base. Lexi Green played outfield and second base. Cristina Hernandez wanted to play softball and used her speed to become a threat on the bases.
Gwynnie Hornibrook was the team’s primary catcher. Abby Jemison was the team’s center fielder. Caroline Redden was the starting shortstop and leadoff hitter. Kylie Reed pitched and played in the middle infield. Shimko spent her time on the left side of the infield, and Sofia Willey played outfield and pitched.
Pizitz parlayed its 11-0 regular season Metro record into a Metro championship on April 8 in an eventful tournament. The Pirates defeated Hewitt-Trussville and Simmons before losing to Bumpus in the semifinals, a team they had beaten 9-3 in the first game of the season.
With the loss, Pizitz was forced to beat Thompson to get back to the finals in the double elimination tournament, where it had to defeat Bumpus twice to gain the trophy.
After a 13-7 Pizitz win sent the tournament into a deciding game, the Pirates had to do it again.
Pizitz took an 8-2 lead into the sixth inning but allowed Bumpus three runs in each of the next two innings to tie the game at 8-8 and send the game into extra innings. With two on and no outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Annie Kate Parks blasted a fly ball that cleared the left field wall for a three-run homer, sending the Pizitz dugout into a frenzy and giving the Pirates the Metro championship in walk-off fashion.
Mann said that he harps on attitude and energy with his program, two things needed in abundance for the Pirates to win it all that day.
On the field, Emma Smith was Pizitz’ primary catcher, while Charity Bibbs, Heaven Bibbs, Libby Pippin and Ally Smith all spent most of their time in the infield. Nikki Hammond and Olivia Renta saw time in the pitching circle. Blakely Berryhill, Ella Dovell, Sydney Harris, Raines Langston, Olivia McClellan, Audrey Norris, Parks and Bella Sanders played primarily in the outfield. Katie Kimbrough is a first baseman but suffered an injury that kept her out for the season.
While not all the girls on the two teams will play at the high school level, some will, and have the makings of a pretty good team in future years.
“They’ll go on and their future’s bright here, so that’s really exciting,” Bragan said. “Not every team I’ve coached has had this kind of fight. It has to do with the life experiences they’ve walked through. You put that together with the talent [Pizitz] has with our talent, that’s exciting things for the future.”
