Westbrook Christian to add softball in 2025, hires two-time state champ Chris Williams
Westbrook Christian School will sponsor softball starting in 2025, marking a return for the program.
Last week the school announced that they were bringing back the program for the first time since 2006 and hired former Springville head coach Chris Williams. He helped lead that program to the 2015 and 2016 Class 5A state titles. Williams is a 21-year coaching veteran and was most recently at Crossville during the 2024 season.
For Williams, the wide ranging success of the Warriors athletic program was one of the alluring parts of taking the Westbrook job, even if he will have to build the program. The other part was family, his sister is a teacher currently at the school and her sons graduated from there and one played in the state baseball championship team in 2021.
"First of all, look at the school, the athletic program in general. It's a top notch school, its a top notch athletic program in every sport, every spring sport has been successful," Williams said. "... This came up, I just put a lot of thought and prayer. I felt at peace that it was my time to step away from public education and go in the private school system and have the opportunity to teach where my sister's at."
The program is currently taking the first step to rebuild and will compete in AHSAA championship play starting immediately in 2025. The first step is to find out what area they will be in, as part of Class 3A. Due to teams in the area moving up or down, it's not clear where the Warriors will end up, but they could be paired with county rival Glencoe.
They will start the process of filling out the team but Williams and the school know they have a strong pool of athletes, it's just a question of how it will translate to softball.
"I don't know how many of the kids that are at Westbrook because of the school system actually have played softball if we had a program...I know there's athletes there. In softball in my 21 years, you can have athletes but you got to be able to make routine plays," Williams said.
The goal is to have two teams — a varsity and either a junior varsity or junior high team — depending on where the interest comes from in lower grades. They will be hosting evaluations over the summer and will host tryouts when school starts in the fall.
The good news for the Warriors is they have had parents and students expressing interest over the last few months and longer.
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Westbrook Christian has done their homework on the prospects of bringing back the sport, telling the Gadsden Times that it was a long process before the announcement last week. The only major unknown is where they will play but it is the final step for the Warriors to work on.
"We are excited about the re-birth of the softball program at Westbrook. We have had several families and students who have expressed interest the past couple of years in us bringing back the program," Westbrook Christian administrator Rachel Neal said in a statement.
"It's definitely not something we were able to throw together overnight. We wanted it to be done and we wanted it to be done well. We spent a lot of time trying to adequately plan and prepare before we announced last week that we would be having a softball team next year. We are excited for the athletes and this new opportunity."
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Westbrook Christian School to add softball in 2025
