Reynolds adapts well to softball
“I’ve been very blessed my 12 years here to be around great kids who had great attitudes and were willing to work hard,” Lady Blackhawk softball coach Josh Reynolds said. “as a coach, that’s all you can ask for!”
The Lady Blackhawks have had a winning season since 2013 and had two winning seasons from 2007 to 2009, Reynolds said. He credits coach Heather Henson Wade with building a great program that he said he feels honored to be a part of.
His favorite thing about coaching softball?
“The kids! Any time you’re around kids, every day is a new day,” Reynolds said. “They bring excitement to life. They’re willing to learn.”
Reynolds, 35, a native of Harrison, came to Pea Ridge in the fall of 2007 for his first job after graduating from the College of the Ozarks. His parents are Jack and P.J. Reynolds of Harrison.
“I was seeking my first job out of college — trying to join the adult world and get a real job,” he recalled, adding that his coaching mentor Kirk Bock knew coach John E. King at Pea Ridge and heard there was an opening. He said he interviewed with then superintendent Mike Van Dyke, high school principal Rick Neal and Mark Laster.
Hired as assistant football coach, assistant softball coach and seventh-grade history teacher, Reynolds was assistant in softball to Wade. Now, he teaches world history at the high school and is head softball coach and assistant football coach in charge of wide receivers and special teams.
“I love it here. It reminds me of home!”
Reynolds said Wade’s parents, Billy and Vicki Henson, “took me in as an adopted son, fed me … I was well taken care of.”
His ties with Wade, who is also a graduate of College of the Ozarks, are multiple. It was she who introduced him to Kathy, who would become his wife. “They both played ball at Crowder,” he recalled. He said they’ve been married 10 years now.
And, Wade’s husband, Mark Wade, was Reynold’s “road roommate” in college. “I’ve known him since I was 18 years old.”
A graduate Harrison High School, Reynolds earned a bachelor’s degree in history, education and coaching from the College of the Ozarks.
He played football and baseball in high school and baseball in college where he was a pitcher and third baseman.
“I originally wanted to be a professional athlete,” he said. “But just wanted to be involved in athletics and competition.”
“Growing up in Harrison, if it doesn’t happen within the mountain, you don’t know about it. I had come over here to play Bentonville and Rogers and had never even heard of Pea Ridge except for the battlefield,” he said. There were several people in Pea Ridge, especially working at Community First Bank, when he moved here who he had known in Harrison.
For Reynolds, the greatest challenge in coaching softball has been learning the specific traits of his players.
“The girls will take everything you say to a literal statement. I had to change my approach from coaching girls to boys and realize they take everything literally, by the letter, that you ask them to do — which is good and bad,” he laughed.
And learning about girls is a lesson that continues at home as Reynolds now has two daughters, Kayti, 7, and Natalee, 5. “Having two daughters has taught me. It’s improving my patience… they hit the ground running every morning and don’t stop until their heads hit the pillow,” he said.
“I really did not have a goal other than trying to get my first real job. I knew I wanted to be involved in the game.
“Coach (John) King and (Matt) Easterling had built a huge program here. When coach Wade asked me if I’d be her assistant, I agreed,” he said, explaining that he hadn’t really seen much softball other than watching his younger sister play. “There was a huge learning curve.”
“He was a great assistant,” Wade said, adding that when she was head softball coach, she was also coaching basketball and volleyball. “I knew my kids were in good hands when I was coaching other sports and that he would get my teams ready for the
season. I knew, when I decided to get out (of softball), that he would do a great job taking over the program.”
The rules in softball and baseball are similar, but some strategy is different, he said. “You work more on the short game bunt stuff. That is not as large a part of the game in baseball. The short game in softball is a huge factor in winning and loosing games.”
“In softball, everything iSsesnhiorrt,LcaodnydBelnascekdh. atrheespitiutcahtiodnusritnhgatthyoeujunior hBalnacdklehdawiffkesrehnotslytetdhatnheyoLuady do in baseball,” he said.
“I put a big emphasis on leadership with our catchers. they can see our entire field, they are the leader on the field. If we don’t have a good catcher, we don’t have a good team,” Reynolds said, adding that the catcher is almost a third coach in directing traffic.
“The one thing that has been fun, is moving from assistant to the head,” he said. “Coach Wade started the process. The program started growing under her and it has continuously increased.”
Reynolds said there were 15 student athletes playing softball when he came here. Now, there are 22 on the roster.
“When we have a concern if we have enough uniforms for people, it’s a good pSroorbrelellm(Nto.h1a7v)ew,”
one before, we have a lot of kids involved.”
He said he does not split his team between varsity and junior varsity but uses the players who don’t play in the varsity game in the JV game. “With the increased numbers, the kids are wanting to be involved. If they want to be here, they’re already motivated.”