Northeast Lauderdale High School announced Monday the hiring of Hayley Stephens as its next head softball coach.

A Union native, Stephens played softball at East Central Community College for two years before transferring to and graduating from Mississippi State. She spent two seasons as an assistant at Union High School before serving as an assistant at Puckett, where she’s been the previous two seasons. 

“It feels really good. It’s exciting,” Stephens said. “It took a lot of hard work to get here, but I’m definitely excited.”

Stephens was one of five candidates interviewed, said Northeast athletic director Lewis Lightsey, who was on the three-person hiring committee along with new school principal Josh Herrington and new assistant principal Jacob Drury. With the high turnover of softball coaches the program has experienced lately, Lightsey said Stephens was right fit.   

“We felt like Hayley was the best one for what we needed. She had energy and enthusiasm,” Lightsey said. “She understands it’s a challenge because we’ve been through a lot of fast-pitch coaches the last several years, but I think she has a good plan laid out for the young ladies, and we’re excited and she’s excited.” 

That plan, Lightsey said, includes teaching fundamentals and returning to basics, but also getting her players, and the community, passionate about softball. 

“I’m big about things like team-bonding and learning life lessons, teaching children how to become citizens through the game,” Stephens said. “Obviously every coach wants to win, but in my opinion winning isn’t everything. Your priorities in life have to be aligned, and I think you have to love what you do as well, so my plan going into this is to have them excited and love the game.”

Lightsey said he thinks Stephens’ biggest asset as a coach will be her approachability based on her experience in the sport.  

“She’s been a softball player, a coach, an assistant coach, so she’s going to be able to relate to the young ladies well,” he said. “She’s really fired up, really excited about being the softball coach at Northeast, and I think that carries a lot of weight.”

In her first head coaching position, Stephens said she’s devoted to Northeast. With a program that’s had many coaches in a few years, she said that expressing to the Lady Trojans she’s locked in will be important for their success. 

“I have to show them that I’m in it for the long haul and I’m committed to them,” she said. “And I believe that if they see my commitment to them and to this team, then they will show me that in return.”

Stephens is taking over a team that had its season ended, as did all spring sports teams, when the MHSAA suspended and eventually canceled all games and activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Having experienced the sorrow with her Puckett squad this year, she said she understands the disappointment. She invites all graduating seniors at Northeast to return to the program in the future and hopes the Lady Trojans’ returning members are preparing for when they can resume play. 

“For the players who did miss out but will still be with us, I hope that they’re still working at home and staying in shape,” she said. “And that when they do get the chance to come back, that they will not take it for granted since it was taken away from them, and that they’ll be ready to go once we do get to start practicing again.”