Whitney Sessions (standing) was named Albany’s softball coach Wednesday.
It didn’t take long for Whitney Sessions to sum up her feelings on being named Albany’s new softball coach.
“Absolutely my dream job,” Sessions, a 2009 Albany graduate, said of her first high school head coaching job. “I love my hometown.”
“I am beyond grateful for this opportunity,” he continued. “I wish the tests were today.”
Sessions, who has been the girls basketball coach at Walker Junior High, replaces Brian Ford, who stepped down after leading the Lady Hornets to an unseeded Division II state runner-up finish after leading the program for three seasons .
Sessions, who has coached football, basketball, softball, track and cross country, is a board member of the Albany Youth Association, which helped her get to know some of the players she will now coach at the Albany softball team.
She was introduced to the team on Wednesday and said her message would not be complicated.
“I know most of these girls personally, and I just want them to know that there’s a difference between knowing you personally and the business, and now we’re in the business,” she said. “There’s going to be different expectations. I’ve always pushed these kids. I’ve probably coached more than half of them at some point, and it’s going to be a different style because they’re not kids anymore. They’re not the young guys. They’re mature. They’re older, so the I will treat them as such, and I expect a lot from them, and it starts as soon as our trials are over.”
Albany manager Sammie Lacara said those tests are one of the reasons the hiring process for a new coach moved so quickly.
“I think it’s good for the kids,” she said. “That was what was happening. You are dealing with sports that have just ended. The school year is about to end. You have to test because you have to consider scheduling and all of that, not just for the kids, but for next year, because it’s something that a lot of people are probably halfway through. You can’t let that fester, so we definitely wanted to go ahead and make that move and do it quickly and put that person in place for a number of reasons.”
Sessions said there is no time to waste in putting his stamp on the program.
“I’m ready to go,” he said. “I’m ready to make a difference, give back more than I already do to this community, and I want to keep that state runner-up momentum going and take them all the way.”
He said he has a plan to get the program to the next step, noting he already has plans in place for summer tryouts and workouts.
Whitney Sessions works with a basketball camper in Albany.
“We’ll reload,” he said. “We’re losing three key players, but there were more girls on the bench that I think will do what they’re supposed to do because they have a taste of state, and I think that will be the biggest motivation for them.”
At Walker Junior High, Sessions took a program that didn’t win a game his freshman year to the final four of the parish tournament last season.
“The first thing we want to look for is consistency,” Lacara said of Sessions’ hiring. “Whitney will bring it because I’ve seen her do that with Albany Youth between basketball and softball. She’s also currently a teacher and basketball coach at Walker Junior High. I was a part of recruiting her there, so she worked for me for a year while I was the assistant principal there and she did a really good job with that basketball program from where she started when she took it to where she took it at the end of that season, and then I able to watch a few times this season as well, and you could see that she’s very, very good at building things … but also taking it to the next level where they were very competitive this year at the end of the season.”
Sessions said that is one aspect she will bring to the Albany softball program.
“We’re going to be competitive (against) everyone we play,” he said. “We want to make the game fun and exciting for fans, and we want to get more people to watch it.”
As such, Sessions said he won’t be afraid to “tweak” things to put the best team on the field.
“I’m playing the top nine, and if the top nine in the field aren’t the top nine hitters, I’m going to have different hitters,” he said. “I’m going to DH. If I have a runner that’s really fast, but the bat isn’t there, I’m going to have designated runners. We’re going to play the best where they need to be.”
Lacara said Sessions is wasting no time in his new role.
“I’ve met with her a couple of times, and she’s very good, and I think she’s going to bring an element to our program that we haven’t seen in trying to expand what we already have and trying to expand what we already have and trying to expand softball to our entire parish because she’s very passionate about this,” Lacara said. “She already wants to know what she’s going to teach and is trying to get the research so she can have it ready to go. He’s hitting the ground running, and I couldn’t be happier with the way he’s handled it. I’m very, very happy, and I just know this about Whitney, probably one of the biggest things that attracts me to her is that one of the things I look for is someone who’s loyal to Albany, and let me tell you. , you can’t question their loyalty. She is all about these kids. She refers to this community. This is what we need and this is what we want.”
