Adamsville fills 2 coaching spots

Heading into the summer, Adamsville had two coaching vacancies — one a long-tenured coach and the other had been there a couple years.

The administration replaced both coaches with two Adamsville natives.

Lani Price will replace Todd McGee as the softball coach, while Chad Austin will replace Kevin McClain as the girls basketball coach.

Price grew up in Adamsville and played softball for McGee in high school. She has spent the last two seasons coaching middle school softball at Bethel Springs.

“The original plan was for me to move to Adamsville to be an assistant coach, but when McGee announced he got the job offer, they asked me if I wanted it,” Price said. “I am very excited to go back to where I played. I want to continue the softball tradition that McGee built.”

Adamsville has been a state tournament contender for the past couple seasons with a berth in 2015, but the Lady Cardinals lost some key players to graduation.

“We are going to have to focus on fundamentals,” Price said. “We have to work on getting more girls involved because we are losing key hitters and pitchers.”

Playing for McGee, Price feels like she will have a close coaching mentality to McGee.

“I started playing for him in the eighth grade,” Price said. “So I think we will have the same mentality with how we practice and what we focus on. He focused on hitting a lot in our practices. I will look to incorporate more fundamentals with the young girls that we have on the team.”

Austin is also a native to Adamsville, and he started teaching there in 1996.

“I have been in Adamsville for 22 years,” he said. “I graduated from Adamsville and spent my whole life in Adamsville.”

Austin has filled many spots in Adamsville athletics by being an assistant baseball coach, assistant and head boys basketball coach and junior high basketball coach. But he is looking to do something new.

“I always coached boys, and I have always wanted to coach girls, so when the opportunity came, I had to jump at it,” Austin said. “This will be a new challenge that I am excited about.”

Adamsville reached the Class A sectionals in 2012, and the program has been building to get back to that point.

“Coach McClain did a great job, and we are both old-school coaches,” Austin said. “I am big on fundamentals and big on making sure the girls can shoot. I told them that we will do three things well — be in shape, be fundamentally sound and be able to shoot the ball.”

There was a strong group of young players last season, and that makes Austin excited about the potential.

“We have a really good group of sophomores, who played as freshmen last year,” he said. “I expect big things from that group. We have three seniors, and we want to send those three out on a good note. The three seniors are great leaders.”

Michael Odom, 425-9754