Program reached 1,000-win mark
By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
The past softball season was notable for Southern Alamance from an historical perspective.
It was a combination of an anniversary and a milestone.
The Patriots, who long ago built a softball tradition, were playing in their 50th season. That time frame includes the slowpitch era and the current fastpitch era.
From those keeping track – and coach Jon Russell has been – Southern secured the 1,000th victory in program history this year.
[Story continues below Southern’s softball record.]
Southern softball through the years
Years Coach Wins
1977-78 J.D. Barrett 26
1979 Sam Fowler 15
1980-86 Tommy Spoon 126
1987-89 Chuck May 62
1990 Greg Thomas 23
1991-95 Danny Pope 114
1996-99 Annie Loflin 85
2000-08 Mike Johnson 215
2009-14 Chris Miller 113
2015-present Jon Russell 222
“When you do the math, that’s 20 wins a season,” Russell said. “That’s pretty impressive.”
T-shirts were made to commemorate the 1,000th win and the 50th season.
Southern didn’t compete in softball when the school opened. It fielded its first softball team in 1977 – so that came a couple of years after the school’s nickname was changed from Confederates to Patriots.
The first teams were in the slowpitch era. Southern had its first season in fastpitch in 1996.
Russell, a former athletics director at Southern, said he compiled many of the year-by-year win totals from yearbooks and with information gathered from past coaches and players.
Eight times Southern has emerged as state champion in softball.
Talking titles
The first two (1981, 1984) of the state titles came in the slowpitch era under coach Tommy Spoon.
Gregg Thomas’ one season resulted in a 1990 state championship, while there were two more (1992, 1994) under coach Danny Pope.
The first fastpitch crown for the Patriots came in 1999 under coach Annie Loflin. Another was secured in 2004 with Mike Johnson as coach. Russell’s 2021 team won it all.
In between Spoon and Thomas, Chuck May coached for three seasons and Southern reached the state semifinals each year.
The Patriots were also state runners-up in 1998, 2001, and 2002.
Some of Southern’s past head coaches were involved as assistant coaches for teams that won state championships. May assisted Spoon, while Pope was also on Thomas’ staff. Johnson coached under Pope and Loflin, while Miller assisted Johnson.
The program has had 10 coaches, with Russell the longest-serving of those.
Johnson with 215 wins was atop the coaching list until passed by Russell, who completed his 12th season.
“I’ve had the same core staff for a number of years,” Russell said.
Russell’s research found that Southern has participated in state tournaments in 48 years (and there was no tournament in the Covid year of 2020).
A thousand and more
Southern’s 1,000th triumph came with a 9-5 home victory against Roxboro Person on April 27. The Patriots won once more after that to finish with a 16-12 record this year.
There’s no formal listing of school victory totals for softball, but Southern figures to be among the winningest programs – at least across the last half-century.
Russell said he knows that Alexander Central, North Davidson, and South Granville have exceeded 1,000 softball wins. Russell is an Alexander Central graduate and former assistant coach there.
Other programs such as Greenville Conley, East Surry, West Stanly, and Southwestern Randolph, which won its sixth state championship this year by defeating West Stanly in the finals, could be in that mix. Southwestern Randolph’s first title came in 2001.
Southern would have reached the 1,000-win level sooner if not for the pandemic, which cut short the 2020 season to five games. The 2021 season also was truncated, yet Southern won its most-recent state championship that year.
The Patriots will look to return to lofty status in the coming seasons. Russell said the age of this year’s starters was 14.5 years old.
