ANSWERING THE CALL
for the school.
She said it was “super special” to be coaching at LFO.
“Tony and I have coached together for nine years,” she explained. “When I was at CCS, he was my assistant for three years and when I came here, I was his assistant for six. I know his coaching style and I’ve learned a lot from him.”
However, Dyer said she has gained a wealth of knowledge, not just from Ellis, but from all of her previous coaches, including a man she got to play for during her freshman year of high school before he stepped down and whose name adorns the top of the rightfield scoreboard.
“I got to play for Chip Liner for one year,” Dyer explained. “But it was really important for me when
I got this job to sit down and talk with him because he was the original person who created the tradition of LFO.”
Dyer said that conversation lasted four hours and that in what she termed “typical Chip Liner form”, he had plenty of stuff written out for a quick course in LFO Softball.
“It’s wild to see how much Chip and Tony’s teaching styles are similar,” she added. “But learning from him and hearing what he valued and what he thought was important as a head coach was something that was really important to me.”
She said she learned a lot about the long history of LFO softball, even things that she wasn’t previously aware about.
“I didn’t know this, but he learned from (former Heritage and longtime travel ball head coach) Steve Chattin, which gave me a lot of respect for Coach Chattin.”
Dyer explained that her coaching style at LFO would be a blend of things she had learned from her previous coaches, as well as stuff that she learned during her time at CCS.
“As a player, I enjoyed having male coaches,” she stated. “They were authority figures and what I’ve learned from them is that there is a standard that you have to create. I don’t think it’s going to be a lot different from what Tony did. A lot of what I’ve learned has been from him, but there’s going to be some similarities.
“But I also learned a lot at CCS. I learned how important the parents are and how important it is to create relationships with the community. It’s really a blend of everybody, including Coach (Frank) Reed at UTC.”
Dyer’s first LFO squad will not have any seniors on the roster, but she said she is grateful to have help on the bench with assistant coaches Kensey Holden and Justin Ouzts.
“I also have great assistant coaches, which I’m excited about and that’s really important, because I think that being a good head coach is having good assistants,” she continued.
“Kensey and I teach together. We have a great friendship and we work very well together. Justin coaches baseball at Lakeview Middle, but again, I think it’s also important to have a male coach around. He’s going to fill a huge hole for the program because he knows a lot about the game and he knows a lot about taking care of that field.”