MONTEVALLO – When former Montevallo softball coach Tena Niven coached her final game on April 29, she unknowingly passed the baton to one of the coaches from the school that beat her. Now, a former Jemison coach will lead the Bulldogs into a new era for the program.  Montevallo High School named Bailey Whitfield its new head softball coach after she was approved by the Shelby County Board of Education on Thursday, July 10 as a new physical education teacher.  Whitfield comes to Montevallo from Jemison Middle School, where she served as the head coach and assisted with the varsity team during the 2025 season.  It was her first season as a head coach following a long playing career. Whitfield starred at Thompson as a high schooler, making the All-County Team in 2017 as an Honorable Mention. She also won a USA Softball national championship on a 16U team with Warriors teammate and future Stillman standout Lauren Haskins.   Whitfield played high school softball at Thompson and was an All-County Honorable Mention in 2017. (File)  She would go on to sign with Faulkner University and played two seasons with the Eagles in 2019 and 2020. After her sophomore season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, she opted to end her college softball career.   During that time, she learned and grew her love for softball alongside her family. Her father coached her throughout her childhood and eventually started a travel ball team that her sister played on.  Whitfield served as an assistant coach with her dad on that travel team and other rec ball teams, gaining six years of coaching experience by the time she graduated from college.  She said her years of learning under her father sparked her desire to be a head coach.   "My dad being my coach and teaching me the ways of playing, but also watching him coach, it made me want to give the excitement and the love of the game to other people," Whitfield said.  She said that the past year at Jemison Middle helped make that dream of coaching a reality and lit a fire in her to move up to the high school game.  While this is Whitfield's first varsity coaching role, she is well-aware of the differences between the two levels and the higher stakes of coaching in high school. She hopes to pass on her love of the game to her students while also preparing them to realize the same goals that she accomplished of playing collegiately.  "The high school level is a whole new ballgame literally because not only are the girls advancing in their skillset but they are also advancing in their career and this is where if they want go to college, this is where they start getting looked at," Whitfield said. "I love the game so much that I advanced my career and I just want to continue the love for the game with them, and hopefully they'll want to advance, but if not, then maybe they'll just want to share the love that they had for the game in the moment to younger kids."  While she hasn't had long to coach, she has already developed her own coaching style and philosophy. She rides the line between work and fun, focusing on developing players through hard work in an energetic environment.  Whitfield believes that doing so will create a conducive environment to help the players learn and grow into their full potential.  "I'm a very disciplined coach," Whitfield said. "I like structure, I like organization, but I'm mainly focused on having fun, because if you're not having fun, then you don't want to do anything else, so just making the girls laugh during practice. You can be funny at practice, but you can still be serious enough to where you get everything done that you need to get done."  Whitfield takes over for program legend Tena Niven, who returned to coach the 2025 season before retiring at the end of the school year. She led the softball program for five seasons across multiple stints with 43 career wins and an area championship in 2023.  In addition, Niven coached across four sports in total during her 25-year coaching career. She holds the school record for wins in girls basketball and also led the volleyball program for 15 seasons.  Whitfield is well-aware of Niven's legacy after sharing an area with the Bulldogs last year. She coached against Niven as a member of Class 5A, Area 7 last season, including in the final game of Niven's career in the area tournament semifinals, and has heard of her legacy since taking the job.  She said that she will strive to emulate even a part of Niven's love for Montevallo softball as best as she can.  "I have coached against her a little bit towards the end of the year last year before she retired, and just the way that she had love for the girls, love for the sport, there's no way that I'm going to be able to match that, but I do hope to match a little bit of it after I get done with this season," Whitfield said.

Read more at: https://www.shelbycountyreporter.com/2025/07/30/montevallo-hires-former-thompson-star-bailey-whitfield-as-new-head-softball-coach/