ACA names Lowry as new softball coach
ACA will have a new softball coach next season in Mollie Lowry who comes from Mars Hill Bible in Florence. (File Photo)
By TIM GAYLE
Mollie Lowry was conducting a softball camp at Mars Hill Bible on Wednesday morning when she was asked about her decision to step down from the Florence private school to accept a similar position at Alabama Christian Academy.
“If you play softball in the state of Alabama, you know about ACA,” she said. “Just to be considered for the job is an honor. I’m humbled by that. The legacy of excellence and success at ACA has just been unmatched.”
Lowry credited ACA head of school Greg Glenn, athletic director Aaron Greenwood and principal Julie Taggert for their persuasive efforts in hiring her away from a program that is synonymous with her family. Her father, Mike Mitchell, put the girls’ basketball program on a championship level years ago before leaving for a similar job at Greater Atlanta Christian, drawing Mollie away from the school in the fourth grade. Her brother Jake, the current ACA boys’ basketball coach, graduated from Mars Hill as well.
Mike Mitchell would return to the school as athletic director and boys’ basketball coach later and served this past season as Lowry’s assistant softball coach.
She returned to the school in 2020 as an assistant under Matt Burgess, then took over the program in 2021. The Panthers finished fourth in the 2A state tournament her first season, then played for the title in 2022, losing a pair of 2-1 games to Orange Beach. This past season, after being elevated to 3A by Competitive Balance Factor, her team lost the state tournament opener to Beulah, then fought back through the elimination bracket to the finals before losing to Opp 6-5.
“At first, it was easy to say I don’t think this is the right opportunity,” she said. “We’ve been so successful at Mars Hill and have a great group of young kids as well as an incredible group of parents that are so supportive of what we do. My dad is my assistant coach. It’s great. But the more I talked (to ACA administrators), the more impressed I was. The first time I met with him, Mr. Glenn took the opportunity to pray, that whatever God’s path was for me would be clear and I’d have peace about it. He’s just been incredibly supportive throughout.
“The opportunity to teach alongside my brother, to coach with my brother, just to be able to be with family and to be able to contribute to what ACA has been able to do is really exciting. It’s an opportunity that is hard to turn down.”
Lowry was a four-year starter and a three-time all-state catcher at Greater Atlanta Christian, leading her team to the state finals in 2006 and 2007. She started every game but one in her four years at Lipscomb, earning Atlantic Sun all-freshman team honors in 2009 and all-conference honors as a sophomore in 2010.
That 2010 team won 50 games and defeated Kentucky, Kansas and UAB, among others, reaching the finals of the NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional before losing to Alabama. She would remain at the school in 2013 as a graduate assistant, then took a job at Harding University, where she earned her master’s degree.
Lowry served as a graduate assistant at Harding in 2014 before becoming a full-time assistant in 2015 and 2016, serving as a strength and conditioning coach and as a pitching coach.
“I’ve been privileged to work with a lot of smart people,” she said. “I try, wherever I go, to learn from them. I was a catcher in college and served as a G.A. there and tried to soak up as much knowledge as I could from our head coach and pitching coach. I went to Harding University and helped start that fast pitch program. I’ve gotten an opportunity everywhere I went to learn.”
She became the head softball coach at Enterprise High in 2017, taking the Wildcats to the regionals in 2017, 2018 and 2019 before she had an opportunity to return to the school she grew up in. Her first season as an assistant under Burgess was canceled by coronavirus but her last three teams have ended up in the state tournament. Leaving the school -- and her players -- was difficult.
“This is home,” she said, “so it’s definitely a hard decision. My brother played at Faulkner and has been the assistant men’s basketball coach at Faulkner, so I’ve known about ACA. When they hired him, they asked if I would be interested but I was still in the state tournament at the time. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve gotten the opportunity to talk to Greg Glenn and Aaron Greenwood and Julie Taggert and have been incredibly impressed with them, their direction for the school and their leadership.”
She will face a difficult challenge at Alabama Christian, which leads the Alabama High School Athletic Association in state tournament appearances (23) and wins (80), but has failed to reach the state tournament in each of the last two seasons on a pair of teams that were largely staffed by underclassmen and included no seniors.
Lowry, the fourth coach in the school’s fast pitch history, will be tasked with finding more players at the smallest school in the Capital City Conference during a time when its rivals and neighboring programs such as 6A state champion Wetumpka and 5A state champion Brewbaker Tech are at their strongest.
“There are plenty of athletes in Montgomery,” she said. “Never in my life have I recruited a kid. My thing is if you build a culture of success and people feel welcome and feel like they can be the best person they are, people want to be a part of that. I think that culture draws people in.”