The journey began for Boyd Buchanan head softball coach Tom Watson as a baseball player.
"I had a little baseball background growing up playing a little American Legion ball and all that kind of stuff."
When did he get into coaching and what was his first opportunity?
"Things really got started for me at East Ridge high school back in the early nineties. I was asked by the principle Ed Foster to help out with the softball team and in my first-year I probably had never even seen a softball game of fastpitch."
So, he was asked to help out with softball when he had never coached fastpitch before and wouldn't you know it, it stuck and he fell in love with the game. Isn't it funny how that happens sometimes? He spent eight years at East Ridge where they won State Championships in '96 and '98.
After getting the opportunity to be the head coach at East Ridge and having some very successful teams he moved onto Baylor where he was a softball coach for an incredibly impressive 22 years helping out head coach Kelli Smith as they built a pretty impressive dynasty winning 14 State titles.
After the 2022 season Watson received a call from Boyd Buchanan's Athletic Director, Matt Pobliego who wanted him to come help rejuvenate a Bucs softball team to previous glory and he jumped at the chance to lead this program.
Now, what has kept him coming back to softball and sticking with this sport specifically?
"It's become a passion of mine to help young lady's and help them learn more and more about the game. It's just always been fun. It's a quick game, it's very similar to baseball in a lot of ways (perhaps not in its quickness) but yet it's different also. It's just a fun game to be around and the girls really work hard."
Now, how about his team for this season? It's still very early on but this is a squad without a single senior on it and that can make it very challenging from a leadership/experience standpoint.
The team is made up of five juniors, one sophomore, two eighth graders, and the rest are freshman.
"We're very young but I'm expecting big things out of a couple of my pitchers Kiley Elliott and Kinley Ervin."
How about the rest of the team, who is Watson looking at to help them have a successful season?
"My shortstop, (freshman) Mercedes Smith is doing a fantastic job right now, I love the way she plays the game in terms of she's all out hustle and she plays with a lot of enthusiasm. Gracie Petty (junior) should have a real good year for us and Brooke Watson (junior 1B) who's just a stand out and has already been offered by Samford University."
The biggest question regarding this team, perhaps is the role of leadership and where does it come from having such a young team...
"The leadership has to come a lot from by leading by actions and lead by their efforts on and off the field because it's very important to me to get things going in a positive direction with creating a lot of positive attitudes, and learning how to win. We've got to learn how to win close ball games, there's no doubt about that."
For Tom Watson, actions will speak louder than words for his girls when it comes to leadership and it should be a fun season for this young Bucs softball team, I'm excited to see how it all unfolds for them.
Hear the full conversation with Tom Watson along with the entire 'Inside High School Sports' show here.