Steve Sasser is stepping down as the Parklane Academy head softball coach after spending the past six seasons at his position with an overall state championship on his resume.
Sasser plans, as of now, to continue as an eighth-grade U.S. History teacher at Parklane. He will also remain the boys head soccer coach. He said his future plans could include being the assistant coach for the Pioneers baseball team, being a substitute teacher at Parklane or teaching a half a day.
The Lady Pioneers won the 4A overall state championship and state championship in 2015 during Sasser’s tenure, the 3A South state championship in 2012 and 2014 and 3A state runner-up in 2013 and 4A state runner-up in 2016.
“If you run a 4A program correctly, it takes a lot of energy, and I’m 61 years old,” he said. “I just don’t have the energy that I had years ago, and I could tell this year that my energy level was not what it needed to be. I’ve always believed, if you can’t do something the right way, then you need to get out of the way and let the program go on.”
Sasser said he began to consider retiring from coaching when he turned 60 last year. He added he wanted to coach for another five years, but it did not work out.
“I could tell during the season that my energy level was draining me,” he said. “I could tell by the end of the season that I was fully exhausted. One thing you can’t be is father of time, and it’s catching up to me.”
Sasser said he would not be part of the process of finding his successor, but the school is reviewing resumes it has received for the position.
“We’ve been successful the last six years,” he said. “Our JV program this year was 22-2. We’ve got good kids coming up. We expect the softball program to continue to be a success.”
Other than winning the overall state championship in 2015, Sasser said one of his fondest memories as the head coach was winning the South state championship in 2012 at home against Copiah Academy.
“When we took over in 2011, we thought it would be three or four years before we would experience what we could accomplish,” he said. “After the first year, we were able to win the South state championship back here when we were still on the old field.”
The old field is behind the gym at Parklane. The Lady Pioneers moved to their new field on campus in 2014.
Hannah Moak, currently a pitcher at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, was on the 2012 team along with Briana Bass, who is an infielder at William Carey. Southwest Mississippi Community College freshman pitcher Mikaela Smith and outfielders Morgan Webb and Kymberli McDowell were on the 2012 team. Smith was a first baseman in 2012.
“That was the beginning,” Sasser said. “That’s when we knew this group would be successful.
“There’s no doubt that this group of kids that’s come through the program since 2012, they’re the most talented group that I’ve ever coached. They were very coachable. They tried to do whatever we asked them to do. They worked hard and it paid off with all the championships for them.”
While Sasser has fond memories at Parklane the past six season, his baseball and softball resume goes back many years.
Sasser, a 1973 Bogue Chitto High School graduate, He was a first-team All-State shortstop for Copiah-Lincoln Junior College for two years and will be inducted into the Co-Lin Hall of Fame later this month where he graduated from in 1975. He was the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Southern Region Shortstop of the Year in 1978 at William Carey where he graduated from in 1979 with a degree in history, education and physical education. William Carey went to the NAIA World Series in 1978.
Sasser was at Parklane from 1979 to 1984 where he served as head baseball coach and girls basketball coach during his tenure. He went into sales for eight years after he left Parklane the first time and then was in the mental health field in the Lincoln County school system where he worked with troubled teens.
He taught at Enterprise from 1998 to 2011 where he started as the head baseball coach and switched to fast pitch softball in 2002 when the school started a team.
