Seven years after leaving the Lawrence County softball program, Josh Graham came back and delivered the school its first state softball championship.
Graham, who was also named The Daily's Class 5A-7A softball coach of the year, guided the Red Devils to a 49-10-1 record this season. The title ended an 11-year state tournament drought, according to Yahoo Sports, and came despite the program losing five seniors from the previous year's roster.
Graham deflects the credit. "It's never about me," he said.
His players pushed back on that. Bella Cross, one of the team's key contributors, said Graham's presence changed the culture from the first day he returned.
"He's going to be the first person there when we need him. He's going to be the first person there to say, 'Hey, I believe in you. You've got this, keep going,'" Cross said. "We all knew that, and that's why we all showed up for him every single day."
At the start of the season, Graham sat the team down and asked each player about their goals. Every one of them said they wanted to win a state championship.
"He explained to each of us the sacrifices that we were going to have to make, the work it was going to take. He told us that we have the biggest opportunity in front of us, but we have to work. We have to keep pushing," Cross said.
The team responded. Lawrence County worked out three days a week, trained on game days, and even practiced during spring break.
"When we go to the beach during spring break, it's a workout day. We work out on game day, we're going three days a week," Graham said. "They never complained about it."
The Red Devils won their third straight area championship, earned the top qualifying spot from the North Regional, and battled through the losers bracket at the state tournament before finishing as champions in a 60-game season.
Graham shared the credit with his assistant coaches: Jackie Burch, Chad Segars, Megan Barton, and Cortney Lovelady. He also serves as the school's assistant principal, a dual role that occasionally pulled him off the field. He said it never worried him.
"I didn't feel nervous or bad about leaving the girls with my assistants," he said. "It was a true staff. Everybody had their own role. They did everything really well, and we worked well off of each other," Graham said. "I couldn't do this alone. Most of the stuff we came up with, was all of us working together."
Graham said the championship belongs to more than just this year's group.
"This is a culmination of all the hard work that everybody in this program has gone through, even past players," he said. "The expectations for this softball program was laid well before this."
Lawrence County's first state title in program history stands as the centerpiece of a season that redefined what the program believes it can accomplish.
