Winningham Takes Over Bees Softball Program

Upperman High School hired Beau Winningham to take over the softball head coaching position.

Winningham began serving as an assistant softball coach for Upperman Middle School in 2011 when the head coach needed another set of hands. When the position opened up, Winningham said he jumped at the chance to get to coach some of his former middle school players.

“Every single girl that’s coming back minus one, I think she was a transfer a year ago, I’ve either had in class or I have coached,” Winningham said. “So, it’s going to be huge that I’ve already developed those, you know, foundations, those relationships moving forward. They know me. They know what is expected of them and we can kind of hit the ground running.”

The Upperman Softball team finished 18-12-1 last season, 10-1 in their district. The Bees head into this season looking to get back to state, but will be missing the senior contributors that powered last year’s tournament run.

“We’re going to have a pretty young team,” Winningham said. “I coached the middle school girls last year. We were first in our district in the middle school. You know, end of season we kind of fell short in the tournament. But, you know, I’m excited to say there’s going to be about six or seven of those girls coming up. They’ve already be instilled with that work ethic. And to see if we can keep the ball rolling in the right direction.”

Winningham said he expects the jump from coaching middle school to high school to present different challenges. But, he said that the skill level of all his players will be comparable which is not always the case in middle school.

“The most obvious thing would be skill set,” Winningham said. “When you’re coaching middle school, you’re dealing with literal fifth grade girls who can’t even throw the ball or they can rainbow it from third to first playing with eighth graders who can, you know, laser beam it from third to first. So, it’s difficult in that sense coaching middle school to kind of play both of those challenges at the same time. You know, when you get into high school the skill sets are a little more consistent.”

In years past, Winningham said he struggled with his players attitudes and passion for softball. He said he hopes the jump in age will provide more maturity and players who love playing.