07/16/2026
🌊🥎 COACH SPOTLIGHT – Head Coach Alyssa Hilton🥎
💙 WHY I COACH 💙
I’ve had a few people ask me why I coach… and the answer is simple.
I love this game.
Softball has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I played T-ball, baseball, and softball growing up, continued playing through high school, and even played slow pitch as an adult. If there’s a chance to be on a softball field, chances are I’m going to take it. These days, I’m definitely not in my prime anymore (😂), but coaching allows me to stay connected to a game that has shaped so much of who I am.
Growing up, I was blessed to have one of the best coaches anyone could ask for—my dad. If you asked my teammates, I think most of them would agree. He taught us far more than how to throw, hit, or field a ball. He taught us how to be teammates, how to work hard, and how to love the game.
Then I got to high school.
I had one coach who nearly took all of that away. A coach who dimmed my light, made me question myself, and almost made me walk away from the game I loved. It left a bad taste in my mouth for a long time, and I know I wasn’t the only player who felt that way.
When I became a coach, I thought about both of those experiences.
I don’t want to be my dad 2.0, and I certainly never want to be the coach who makes a child want to quit. Instead, I want to take the best qualities I learned from my dad, combine them with my own experiences and lessons, and continue growing into the best coach I can be.
At this age, softball isn’t just about winning.
It’s about learning the game.
It’s about falling in love with the game.
It’s about learning how to be a great teammate.
It’s about learning how to handle failure, celebrate success, support others, and keep going when things get hard. Those lessons don’t stay on the softball field—they carry into college, careers, relationships, and life.
More than anything, I want these girls to leave this team as better people than when they arrived.
Every single player on this team has something special. They choose to wake up early while others are sleeping. They choose to spend weekends on the ball field when they could be doing something else. They show up because they love this game.
And I see that.
I don’t coach because I’m trying to relive my playing days through them. Those days are behind me, and I’m okay with that. I coach because I want to share the love of this game that was given to me. I want to share the excitement, the life lessons, the friendships, and the memories that softball has given me. Looking back, so much of who I am today was shaped by the years I spent on a softball field.
My hope is that years from now, these girls won’t just remember the wins or the losses.
I hope they remember the laughter in the dugout.
The confidence they built.
The friendships they made.
The lessons they learned.
And that they had a coach who believed in them—even on the days they didn’t believe in themselves.
As this team grows, I want to grow right alongside them. I want to become a better coach, a better teammate to my coaching staff, and someone these girls look back on years from now and say,
“I’m really glad she was my coach.”
That’s what success looks like to me. 💙🖤🦑
— Coach Alyssa
🥎💙🖤
