ROCKINGHAM — After 13 seasons as Richmond Senior High School’s head softball coach, Wendy Wallace has decided to pass the bat onto someone else.
Wallace, whose tenure as the Lady Raiders’ head coach saw the program blossom and become a perennial playoff powerhouse, decided earlier this summer that this was the best time to step away from the diamond and focus on other areas of her life.
“I’ve spent a long time coaching softball and I just decided I wanted to spend more time with my family,” Wallace, who is also an assistant principal, explained. “My daughters, Matti and Maisley, are getting older and are becoming more and more involved in things. With so much going on, I realized I didn’t want to miss out on any of it.
“There were times when I wasn’t sure I was ready to give it up,” she added. “But I had a feeling over the course of the season, and I feel like this is the right time to go out. I’m not second guessing it because I had a really special group of players to go out with.”
The special group of players she’s referring to is the 2019 Lady Raider team that racked up a 25-3 overall record this spring, which was the second-best winning percentage (.893) during Wallace’s tenure (2014, .966). This year’s team also had three seniors — Savannah Lampley, Taylor Parrish and Greyson Way — who were a part of the winningest class in program history.
When Wallace took over the program at the start of the 2007 season, little did she know what the next 13 years would entail. During that span, she compiled a 258-82 overall record, including playoffs, making her the winningest coach in program history.
The 258 victories in 340 games played gave her a career winning percentage of .759. Against conference opponents, Wallace recorded a 132-18 record.
From 2007 to 2019, the Lady Raiders made the NCHSAA 4A state playoffs each year, with appearances in the third round or later six times. Richmond made back-to-back Western Regional Finals in 2017 and 2018, finishing as regional runner-up both years. In the final two seasons of her career, Wallace’s team earned the No. 1 overall seed in the 4A playoff bracket.
In her final seven seasons, Wallace won at least 21 games each year, with 28 wins during the 2014 season proving to be a career high. The Lady Raiders also made it to the fourth round or later in the state playoffs during the 2014 through 2018 seasons.
Wallace would rack up nine total conference championships, earning her first two in 2009 and 2010, respectively, before winning seven straight from 2013 through 2019. She was also named the conference’s “Coach of the Year” six times (2009, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019).
Also under her watch, seven different players would earn the conference’s “Player of the Year” recognition. They were: Brittany Tedder (2008), Maggie McKenzie (2010), Casey Snead (2012), Cierra Bowden (2013), Summer Jacobs (2014), Doodle Jacobs (2015, 2016) and Greyson Way (2018, 2019).
Lampley, who is set to begin her freshman season at UNC-Wilmington, was the lone Lady Raider player under Wallace to be recognized as the North Carolina Softball Coaches Associations 4A “State Player of the Year.” She won that award during her junior season (2018). She was also the “Region Player of the Year” as a junior and senior. Way, a UNC-Greensboro commit, was also awarded the “State Pitcher of the Year” following her junior season, and “Region Pitcher of the Year” her final two years.
“The numbers speak volumes of the talent that came through our program,” Wallace commented on her accolades. “Not every program or sport has the luxury of the talented players who played for me. They were committed and there was always a drive to want to do better.”
While each of her 13 seasons had triumphs of their own, the 2018 season saw several program records rewritten. On Friday, April 20, the Lady Raiders set four new single-game school records against Seventy-First High School: runs (34), runs batted in (28), most players to score multiple runs (9) and most individual players to hit a double (6).
As a team that season, Richmond blasted 55 home runs, tying the North Carolina state record while also setting a new program mark.
During her first couple of seasons, Wallace, who defined herself as “competitive,” didn’t see her team win a conference title. But with a growth mindset, Wallace watched as the program underwent a culture change and set the expectation of winning not just regular season games, but postseason games and conference championships, as the new normal.
“It took a couple of years to grow the culture we wanted, but it was really cool when we got there,” Wallace said. “Setting high expectations and achieving them became a part of Richmond softball. If I could define my time as head coach into one word, it’d be ‘successful.’ We’ve developed a really good program and it evolved into wanting to win the conference every year.
“I think the program has gone in the direction I wanted it to go in,” she added. “I remember my first couple of years the girls didn’t know what to expect. But the farther we went and the more we developed, it became more of an expectation to win and contend for a state title. It was really exciting to see that.”
In between all of the practices, bus rides, games, team meetings, triumphs and heartbreaks, Wallace will always carry with her the relationships she’s built and maintained over the past decade and a half.
“The best part of being the head coach was creating the relationships with the girls,” Wallace closed. “I was blessed with great athletes who had great attitudes, and parents who were just as good. They’re a part of my family now and always will be.”
Wallace isn’t going anywhere, as she’ll resume her assistant principal responsibilities as the 2019-2020 school year gets underway later this month.
Set to take over the program is current RSHS physical education teacher Mike Way. Wallace said she’s “certain (Way) will do a great job with the program,” adding he “knows where the program is” since his daughter Greyson was a four-year varsity player.
