ALL-AREA SOFTBALL: Beauregard’s Payne, Langford earn Player, Coach of the Year honors

By Tom Peavy

Published: June 9, 2008

One was in his first year with the team.

The other had been there five years.

And together the pair helped lead Beauregard’s softball team to a solid season — one which included a Class 4A-Area 6 regular-season title and a trip to the second Sub-State round of the 4A state playoffs.

In his first year as head coach, Robert Langford earned Opelika-Auburn News Coach of the Year honors.

And for being the Hornets’ consummate team leader on and off the field, shortstop Aleah Payne is the Opelika-Auburn News Player of the Year.

“Getting this award makes my year,” Payne said. “This is something I’ve always wanted and didn’t really think I’d get since I’m not a pitcher.”

Statistics-wise, Payne was at the top of her game and was unquestionably the area’s top shortstop of 2008.

In 41 games she hit .431 with a .477 on base percentage with 39 runs scored. She also made just nine errors in 208 innings of play for a .926 fielding percentage.

Her efforts allowed her to be named a Class 4A honorable mention All-State selection.

“She’s been playing varsity at Beauregard since the eighth grade — in fact I believe she was the first ever eighth-grader allowed to come up from Sanford (Middle School) to play varsity,” Langford said of his star shortstop. “She played baseball up until she was 14 and from the stories I heard she dominated some of these guys that are now graduating from the baseball team.

“She was my team captain and has been the leader for this team. A lot of people made up that team, but she’s the one everyone looked to — however Aleah went was how the team went.”

But her success on the field was just a part of why Payne earned Player of the Year honors.

All year she was the leader on the diamond, cheering when her team was up and rallying players around her when the team was down.

“At the beginning of the year I wasn’t stepping up,” Payne said. “But my coach and the other players — I could tell they were looking for me to do something on the field and that what I was doing really mattered. So that was a big influence on me this year.”

Payne will move on to the collegiate level next year, where she will suit up for Jefferson Davis Community College in Brewton.

And while Payne was leading the way on the field, behind the scenes it was Langford who guided the Hornets to a successful season.

While the 21-20 record isn’t eye-popping, it included wins over Class 6A teams and a win over state power Dadeville to clinch the Area 6 regular-season crown — all as a first-year head coach at the school.

The Coach of the Year honor is Langford’s second as he was named Baseball Coach of the Year in 2004 while at Notasulga.

“I’m not like a lot of other coaches around that are all into drills and the X’s and O’s of the game,” Langford said. “I firmly believe that if you can get a team to believe in you, have discipline and get your girls or guys to work hard for you, then there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.”

Beauregard stayed at or near the top of the Area 6 standings all season, and then got a big boost with a win over Dadeville.

That allowed the Hornets to finish tied with the Tigers for the regular-season crown and the right to host the Area 6 tournament. Beauregard won the tie-breaker via a runs-allowed rule.

Beauregard eventually fell to Dadeville in the Area 6 tournament, but went on the road for the Sub-State first round and hammered Northside in two games, 6-3, 6-3.

Beauregard’s hopes for a state tournament berth fell short, though, as the Hornets were knocked out by perennial state power Alabama Christian.

“The girls really started believing in themselves,” Langford said. “That was a point I really stressed to them — start believing in yourselves and if you work hard enough there’s nothing you can’t accomplish.”

The future looks bright for Beauregard’s softball team, but it will be without Langford, who announced he was leaving to take a teaching position at Smiths Station next season.

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