Glenwood’s Dusty Perdue named All-Bi-City Spring Softball Coach of the Year

For a coach who’s been in his share of title games, Glenwood softball’s Dusty Perdue admitted he was anxious when the Lady Gators were on the cusp of the 2017 championship.

Perdue’s Glenwood squad played Northside Methodist Academy with a chance to clinch its third consecutive AISA Class 3A championship and sixth under Perdue’s leadership. Even after beating Northside Methodist earlier in the double-elimination tournament, Perdue said he was antsy as the teams took the field again.

“The coach is probably the most nervous person in the ballpark. I know I am, anyway,” Perdue said. “My butterflies are going on every pitch, not just the very last out or the very last pitch. I’ve been lucky enough to have been there before, but it never gets old.”

Those nerves proved to be for naught in the end. Glenwood crushed its opponent 9-1 to make it a three-peat for the team. Thanks to his team’s championship, Perdue has been selected as the All-Bi-City Spring Softball Coach of the Year.

Perdue said entering the year he was confident Glenwood was one of the top two or three teams in the classification. To make sure that was the case, the Gators played a hefty 55-game regular season, giving the players plenty of opportunities to work on their game and improve through the season.

Glenwood pitcher McKenna Gillespie, who was selected as the All-Bi-City Player of the Year, said the long regular season was beneficial in the team’s pursuit of another title.

“Every year, we play over 50 games, and that’s like a college season,” Gillespie said. “I think it really helped the team because we get so much practice in and there’s more chances for success. When we failed, we went to practice the next day and tried so much harder because we’re all so competitive.”

The competitive fire drove Perdue’s Gators to 40 wins in the regular season, but the start of the state tournament delivered a huge wake-up call. Glenwood struggled in its 5-2 win over Hooper, a team that Glenwood should have had little issue with.

If the season was going to end with a championship, Perdue reasoned, something had to change.

“I think that woke us up a little bit,” Perdue said. “We needed to bear down and do something really special and not take this for granted.”

From there, the Lady Gators were nearly unstoppable. They beat rival Lee-Scott 10-0 and then toppled Northside Methodist in the first meeting 3-1 before the Lady Knights came back through the loser’s bracket.

Glenwood had some breathing room given it had not lost in the tournament, but it didn’t need it. Senior Parker Slappey hit her first home run of her career, Gillespie made it back-to-back homers with another wall-clearing shot, and the rout was on.

Many may remember the team for continuing the recent winning tradition, but Perdue said each team should really be looked at separately.

“It’s not about the three-peat to me; it’s about that year’s team and how much they’ve worked since January to get to May,” Perdue said. “You see that final pitch and that final out, and you see the jubilation of your team from the youngest kid, who was a seventh grader, all the way to your three seniors. You can just see that deep breath finally come out that says, ‘We finally did what we want to do. We got to that point, and we’re the happiest people in the ballpark.’”

This is the second three-peat Perdue has been a part of, as Glenwood won three titles from 2009 to 2011. Perdue said he was excited for all the players, who talk year-round about getting rings and putting up championship banners.

Once again, they get to do just that.

“It’s just a big deal for our softball program and Glenwood,” Perdue said. “They never get old.”

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Glenwood’s Dusty Perdue named All-Bi-City Spring Softball Coach of the Year."