Looking to build up its softball program, Columbus announced on Wednesday it has turned to former collegiate player and West Point coach Kadaja Babbitt as its next leader of Falcons softball.
Babbitt, a Shannon native, played as a catcher and first baseman at Coahoma Community College and spent the last three years with the Green Wave as an assistant varsity coach and head coach of the junior high softball team. Now, she’s thrilled to take over the reins at Columbus.
“I’m super excited,” Babbitt said. “I’m humbled that the district as a whole took a chance on me to coach a wonderful group of young ladies. I’m very excited and I can’t wait to get started working.”
Columbus has struggled on the diamond in recent years, posting a 3-18 finish to last season with an 0-10 mark in Region 1-5A games – which was a step up from only winning one game through the two years prior. It’s a slide that Babbitt said she’s keen on changing during her time as coach of the Falcons and she is going to start from the ground up.
“We didn’t have a great season last year, but hopefully with my work ethic and with the plan I have for them we can try and get the program back on track,” said Babbitt, a graduate of both Mississippi Valley State University and Jackson State. “I’m looking to really instill a lot of confidence in the ladies and get them to believe in themselves, because we all need support. Once they feel that their need of support (is met) and feel like, ‘Hey, someone is really here to work with me and help better me,’ because I want all of them to play on the collegiate level. My goal is to actually have a few of them get signed on to the next level to play in college. … I want them to be successful young women on and off the field, and I feel like together if we work hard, compete with pride, we can represent Columbus High (School) in an excellent way.”
Getting to that point won’t be necessarily easy, though, she added. It’s going to take hours upon hours of hard work powered by the drive to right the ship.
“I really want to start at the basics working with fundamentals, working with skills, and the correct way of doing things,” Babbitt said. “Because the previous years I’ve watched, stuff needs to be reincorporated the correct way with the right approach, putting in a lot of hard work. There’s going to be a lot of days where they are not going to like Coach Babbitt, there’s going to be a lot of days where we are going to have fun, but we have to put in the work in order to be successful. It’s going to take a little bit of frustration and being mad some days, but we are going to get it done and get where we need to be to be a successful team.”
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