Warren Central’s softball team could’ve had an easier year. They could’ve scheduled a bunch of easy games outside of the division and coasted until they got into the meat of their schedule. But that’s not how coach Dana McGivney likes to do things.

“My philosophy is that to be the best, you have to beat the best, so we’re going to play teams that are in a run for a state championship every year,” McGivney said. “It doesn’t do us any good to play teams that we can just beat very easily all the time. We need to play teams that it’s going to take a full team effort to win.”

Though they finished the regular season below .500 with a 9-13 record, this method paid off when the postseason arrived. Warren Central went head-to-head with Southaven in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs, losing the first game but then rattling off two straight wins to take the series and advance to the second round.

They fell there to Tupelo, narrowly losing both games in a series sweep. But for managing an evolving roster, navigating a tough schedule, and taking some calculated gambles that paid off, McGivney has earned the 2018 Vicksburg Post softball Coach of the Year award. It’s the fifth time in her 13 seasons at Warren Central that McGivney has won it.

McGivney broke down what it took for her team to put together such a solid year.

“A lot of hard work, a lot of teamwork, just kids coming together and not quitting just because we were having a hard time or when we had a run of several losses in a row. They didn’t put their heads down and quit,” McGivney said. “They just pushed harder and fought harder until we figured out what worked and got into the playoffs.”

McGivney said one of the biggest challenges of the year was a stretch where her team was committing a lot of errors.

“I felt like we should’ve been playing better and we weren’t, and I was just trying to figure out what to do to make it better,” McGivney said. “I knew we had the talent to do it, it was just a matter of getting everybody on the same page and to relax and play ball.”

McGivney encouraged her team to never settle and always strive for more, no matter how they were playing, and with fewer errors came overall improvement for the squad.

“They kind of got more and more confident in playing with each other, and once I decided to start the two eighth-graders as our pitchers, they just seemed to work better as a group. They seemed to jell better with the eighth-graders pitching,” McGivney said.

It was a bold move by McGivney to put Annalyn Nevels and Maddie McAdams at the top of her rotation, but it paid off. They started eight games down the stretch and pitched in 17 between them. They had a combined 2.33 ERA — half a run lower than the staff average — and solidified the position. Nevels only walked four batters in 36 innings.

“I think the two of them stepped in and basically took over the entire starting role,” McGivney said. “We started them both in the playoffs. They won the first series for us, and came back and only lost to Tupelo by one run each game, so not too bad.”

Though there were some tough stretches, McGivney said the strength of her team was its resiliency, and that she never saw them quit.

“It’s just a matter of making sure they understand, just because you lost today, doesn’t mean that we’re going to lose tomorrow,” McGivney said. “Just because we had a bad game today doesn’t mean we’re going to have a bad game tomorrow, you just have to come out every day and give 100 percent for seven full innings.”

Vicksburg Post Coaches of the Year
2018 – Dana McGivney, Warren Central
2017 – Amanda Yocum, Porter’s Chapel
2016 – Brian Ellis, Vicksburg
2015 – Candice Reeder and Howard Park, St. Aloysius
2014 – Dana McGivney, Warren Central
2013 – Dana McGivney, Warren Central
2012 – Gene Rogillio, St. Aloysius
2011 – Amanda Yocum, Vicksburg
2010 – Dana McGivney, Warren Central
2009 – Dana McGivney, Warren Central
2008 – None
2007 – Amanda Yocum, Vicksburg/Porters Chapel
2006 – Chris Etheridge, Porters Chapel
2005 – Lucy Young, Warren Central
2004 – Kevin Griffin, Porters Chapel
2003 – Kevin Griffin, Porters Chapel
2002 – Gene Rogillio, St. Aloysius and Lucy Young, WC
2001 – Gene Rogillio, St. Aloysius
2000 – Josh Harper, Vicksburg