Marty Williford

Elementary+physical+education+instructor+Marty+Williford

Lexie Ray

Elementary physical education instructor Marty Williford

Lexie Ray

ISLAND

“It was a tough decision to quit coaching basketball, but after years and years of being away from my kids, my wife, you know sometimes three days, three nights I wouldn’t see them in a row,  and it got tougher on me so I decided to spend a little more time with them and give them the attention they need. This will be my sixth year coaching softball. We have been to state four out of the last five years. We’ve been to the finals twice and the final four once. When I first got hired, I didn’t know I wanted to do softball, I knew that I wanted to do basketball mainly then after one year in softball we were 3-10 and then after that we just started winning and I just fell in love with it. The girls told me I would wind up falling in love with it and I didn’t believe them at first but I have wound up really, really loving the sport.

“I do not think the softball girls get treated fairly. It’s a touchy subject for me, I want the girls to be treated like they deserve. Me, I don’t care about any of the limelight stuff, but I do not think we get treated fairly. If you look at our field it’s in rough shape. We’ve tried here and there to make it look a little bit better. As far as we come home from the finals twice and we didn’t get greeted with fans and I think, you know, the girls really deserve the recognition like all the other teams. Some people believe it to be a basketball school only. This school has much more to offer outside of basketball. Don’t get me wrong I love the sport and the kids. Being on both sides of the sport, I see that other organizations don’t get the support or recognition that they deserve. The community needs to go out and support these kids in everything that they can. There are a lot of great things happening around here. You just have to get and and try some new things.

“My favorite memory is in 2012 when we made it to state. We played down south and me being fresh, a new job with Coach Fowler and Blake, we wound up winning the semi game to get to the finals, and at that moment I knew that I loved the game more than anything else. I think my team will make it to state this year, but the real question is do they think they can.”