BY NOAH GRIFFITH
FOR THE OBSERVER
BEAUREGARD — Beauregard High School softball coach Scott Meadows finished his eighth and final season with the program by leading the Hornets to their best season in recent history.
After 15 years serving in the Beauregard school system (five at the middle school then 10 at the high school), Meadows is walking away from coaching with previous assistant coach Nathan Langley set to take over as head coach.
Before Meadows ended his coaching tenure, though, he led Beauregard to a 32-11 record and its third state tournament appearance in program history. Beauregard also won its second ever regional tournament. The team is trending upward, just the way Meadows wanted to leave it.
“A lot went into our success this year, really. It just felt like everything went right this season,” Meadows said. “We had the best coaching staff since I’ve been here this year, our three seniors led by example and we had a lot of our younger players step up. Everybody raised their game from last year.”
After sweeping its way through the are tournament and regionals, Beauregard met its match in the AHSAA Class 5A State Tournament. The Hornets lost its first two games to Alexadria and Jasper and were eliminated despite a pair of hard-fought performances.
Game one versus Alexandria went to extra innings, tied 1-1, and Beauregard was in a pitcher’s duel. Meadows decided to keep the hot hand in the pitching circle, and that’s when Alexandria rallied for four runs to win, 5-1.
“Hindsight’s 20-20, but I’m never going to pull a pitcher when the game’s tied and she’s pitching well,” Meadows said in retrospect on the decision to keep the starting pitcher in the game in extra innings versus Alexandria. “We had a little break before we played Jasper. Sure enough, Jasper had a stud pitcher, too.”
Beauregard combatted Jasper’s tough pitcher, sophomore Missy Odom, with its own ace in senior Hannah Parham. After Beauregard entered the sixth inning up 2-0, Jasper scored four in the bottom of the sixth. Odom stayed in the game and slammed the door on the Hornets in the seventh inning, sealing a 4-2. Win to eliminate Beauregard.
After losing its first game and being on the brink of elimination versus Beauregard, Jasper won every game after that and beat Moody twice in a row to win the 5A State Title. Odom was the MVP.
“I was proud of the way we went out,” Meadows said. “It was a good season. We had a couple of down years before this one, couldn’t get out of the area tournament, and I think last year we started to turn it around. Everyone improved this season, and they have a great group returning next year.”
At 53-years-old, Meadows has two grandchildren and wanted to quit coaching – not because he had to – because he wanted more time with them. He’s taking another job at the school but will no longer be coaching.
Along with that, he felt the program is in a good state to be carried on without him. Not only is a solid group of players returning with only three seniors graduating, Meadows is also confident that his successor, Langley, is ready to wear his shoes. At the beginning of this season, he recruited Langley over from coaching baseball to softball when he came from Pike Road to Beauregard. Langley now says choosing to coach softball was one of the best decisions he’s ever made.
The work off the field also “wore him down.” Meadows cited fundraising, for his team and other sports at Beauregard, and field maintenance as extra tasks that took time away from spending summers doing what he loves – being with his family and watching his kids grow up.
“There are some parts you miss and others you don’t,” Meadows put it frankly.
However, Meadows also cherishes the relationships he’s formed with players and coaches at Beauregard and in their area. He doesn’t plan to become a stranger to the program.
“I told the team ‘I’m going to come to some games (next year), and I’ll be your biggest fan,’” Meadows said. “Just excited for them. They got a good group coming back next year – just how I wanted to leave it… I wouldn’t be surprised if they got back to state next year.”
