Redemption year pays off for Lady Ramblers coach

Rose Bud head softball coach Scotty Starkey is named the 2017 Three Rivers Edition Coach of the Year after leading his team to a state championship.
Rose Bud head softball coach Scotty Starkey is named the 2017 Three Rivers Edition Coach of the Year after leading his team to a state championship.

— Early in the season, Rose Bud lost 9-2 to Pottsville in a tournament, dropping the Lady Ramblers to 10-4 on the year.

“We got whipped pretty good by Pottsville,” Rose Bud head coach Scotty Starkey said. “There were a lot of expectations for this team, and 10-4 was probably not up to par.

“Not saying those four losses weren’t against good teams because they were all against really good teams.”

Starkey said that after the loss, he made a couple of moves to try to change things up.

“That loss sticks out because that’s the worse we had been beat all year,” he said. “But after that, we started rolling. It sparked the rest of the season.”

Rose Bud went 20-1 the rest of the way, with its only loss to Bald Knob in the regional final.

“I look at that loss to Pottsville, getting beat as bad as we did against them. It woke us up and got us going the rest of the year,” Starkey said.

Rose Bud would advance to face Bald Knob for a third time in the Class 3A state championship at Bogle Park in Fayetteville, winning 6-4. It is the first state championship for the Lady Ramblers.

“It is huge,” Starkey said, “the support we have gotten from the community and the school.

“It has been overwhelming. They have really supported these girls and this team.

“I am proud to be a part of this team and this community, with the way they’ve backed us all year along.”

Starkey is this year’s Three Rivers Edition Coach of the Year.

“I think we were more determined this year,” sophomore Joley Mitchell said, “even with both of our coaches, because of what happened last year.

“They wanted us to be more serious this year, and we had to take it more serious.”

Rose Bud lost 1-0 to Bald Knob in the state championship in 2016. Starkey said it left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Last year stung a little bit,” he said. “We played them five times, and last year they probably had one of the best teams in the whole state.

“I know some people consider them one of the top teams in the nation.”

He said that out of the five times, three or four of them were close.

“They let us have it once; they beat us pretty good,” he said. “Last year, I don’t know if we were supposed to be where we ended up, but these girls proved they deserved to be there.”

Having lost only one senior from last year’s squad, Starkey knew it was a good chance that Rose Bud would return to the state championship.

“I think our side of the bracket was pretty loaded [this year],” he said. “All eight teams were quality teams.

“I thought we had a much tougher road to get to the finals this year than we did last year.”

Starkey said the experience from last season and the maturity of his players were also crucial differences.

“This year, we were much more serious in achieving our goal,” he said. “Anybody who knows these girls knows they like to have fun.

“When they get inside the playing field and it is time to go, they are serious.”

Mitchell, who is the Three Rivers Edition Player of the Year, said the game against Smackover in the state tournament was a turning point.

“Everybody was talking about that game, saying that the winner of that game would make the state finals, probably against Bald Knob,” Starkey said. “I didn’t have to say much to them before the game. They were pretty fired up about it, more than I have ever seen.

“All I did was go in there, in our team huddle beforehand, and say, ‘Go shut them up.’ And that’s all it took.”

Rose Bud had lost seven straight times to three-time defending state champion Bald Knob before the Lady Ramblers won in May — including a 4-0 loss in the regional final.

“I told them if we are going to lose to them, this was the time to do it, because from here on out, you can’t lose,” Starkey said. “I told them, ‘Girls, top to bottom, if you put the best team out there on the field, you are it.’

“‘We are going to be that team that goes 4-0 in the tournament. We are going to do this.’”

Starkey said that after the loss in the regionals, there was a new focus.

“They wanted this as bad as I have ever seen a group of girls want to win,” he said.

“When we went to state, coach told us, ‘You’ve got to go 4-0 …,’” Mitchell said. “It really showed that they had faith in us and that they had all year; it showed so much.

“They never wanted us to give up.”

Starkey has been at Rose Bud for 14 years but has only been the head softball coach for the past four.

“I have always done football, and I have done track and some baseball,” he said. “And I have done a stint as an assistant coach for softball for one year when my daughter played.

“This job opened up four years ago.”

In 2015, Rose Bud lost to Haskell Harmony Grove in the first round of the regional tournament.

“Rose Bud has always been a name recognized in the state tournament,” Starkey said, “but we went through a three-year lull where we didn’t make it.

“But we knew we had the players and the talent coming up through the ranks to start making those runs again.”

Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.

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