People often say that being an athlete can be very stressful and they need to be very focused to do great in their sport, but what people don’t talk about is how much it takes to be a coach of these sports teams. Dealing with the stress of watching the team they built to perform well is a task of its own, but rewarding at the same time.

Softball coach Anna Hollis-Childress deals with these issues all the time, but the way she takes these problems and makes them positive is what makes her a great coach. When she coaches, she really tries to build a team, instead of individual players playing together.

“I want to form a team bond where together everyone achieves more,” Hollis said.

She is someone who takes pride in what she does and really puts all her time on to making the team great. Though, sometimes, it can be difficult to manage time between family and coaching – but she manages to make it work.

“I tend to throw both feet into coaching, and that is why my husband is coaching JV with me,” she said.

She is a veteran member of the Oviedo staff, teaching for 30 years at this school. She even was a varsity softball player for all four years herself at Oviedo, highlighting how much she cares about the sport and school.

“I was a part of an era of the best slow pitch team Oviedo ever had,” Hollis said.

She started coaching fastpitch softball in the 1993-1994 school year and coached until the 1999 season until she took a break to start a family. She came back and coached volleyball because they had a new softball coach, but couldn’t get the sport out of her system and eventually came back as the coach.

She wants to inspire other players to be the best that they can be, and she has many goals to get there this season. Truly believing in her team, sometimes the hardest part can be getting the team to believe in themselves.

“I want to get the girls to believe in themselves, and the fact they have individual talent that, when combined with teamwork, is a perfect recipe for a great team,” Hollis said.