ABBY BOX-EUFAULA
Eufaula junior Abby Box and Ironhead softball coach Ryan Green have a pretty long history as player-coach.
“I moved to Eufaula in second grade and started playing on a team with coach Green for a couple of years and then I stopped playing and started back again in sixth grade with coach Green and he’s been my coach ever since,” said Box. “I have some family friends and a cousin that played and they’re the ones who got me interested to begin with and they’ve been my role models ever since.”
For his part, Green is appreciative of what Abby brings to the team.
“Abby is a fantastic teammate and is always looking for any possible way to help her team. She is one of those kids you can always count on to do the right thing in any situation. This season I’ll be looking for her to take on a bigger role for us and will definitely contribute in whatever way her team needs her to.”
Eufaula is a fairly young team this year with just a couple of seniors so Abby’s large junior class has been asked to step up big and as Abby notes, that process is still playing out as they get ready to go into slow pitch season.
“We had to do a lot of growing up during fast pitch season being young and then having a couple of girls injured along the way and so we needed some of the young girls to step up and us upperclassmen had to kind of shepherd them along. I think we’ve still got some growing up to do in slow pitch as we’re almost a whole new team from last year, but I think be an all-right team.”
With just two seniors, one area Green may look to Abby for is leadership.
“I think a good leader is someone you can talk to, not one of those scary seniors, and to be understanding about how it is to move from middle school to high school ball,” said Abby who is also a member of student council.
In her spare time Abby likes to be with family, work out at her dad’s gym and enjoy her job at a local pizza establishment.
