In a meeting with his players last week, longtime Boiling Springs softball coach Randy Piazza announced to his team that he was retiring as the leader of the Bulldogs softball program at the end of the year.
Piazza has been the leader of the Bulldogs program since 2014 and prior to that was the lead assistant to head coach Sandy Martin, that included the Bulldogs 2013 4A state championship winning performance. During his time as the Bulldogs head coach Piazza has a record of 164-57 which included three region championships along with numerous playoff appearances. During that time, he has seen many of his players go on to play college softball and during his ten years as head coach has had at least one player selected to the North-South game, which continued this year in his final season as second baseman Jacie Ross was recently honored with the selection to the prestigious game. When asked about why he made the decision to step down after this season, Piazza said that he felt it was about being accountable for the team not performing at the level he was used to, and he thought that maybe a new voice could bring the team back to its top level of play. "I hold myself accountable for how my team performs and I felt like the team could benefit from a new voice," said Piazza. "We've had a great run here and I'm glad of all that we've accomplished. Even though it's still a sad moment for me, I think it's something I needed to do as it just felt like the right time for me." Piazza, who is a 1978 graduate of Boiling Springs, said that during his time as the leader of the Bulldogs he always wanted his teams and their way of play to reflect in a positive way on Boiling Springs as he has a great love for the community that he grew up. "I've always taken pride when people complimented me on how our teams played but also in how they held themselves on and off the field," said Piazza. "I've always taken pride in being from Boiling Springs and I wanted our players to do the same. I was always proud to have this job and I wanted what we did as a team to make our athletic directors and school proud. We worked to make this program successful and something for the community to be proud of every season. I can't count how many times I've been complimented by random people about how great our kids are and on how proud they are of the team." He said that the desire to give back to his community always came from the NFL players that he saw growing up as a kid and became a desire of his even into his college career. "As a kid I had a vision of playing pro football and never knew if I was going to get there but I always heard those guys talk about how they wanted to give back to youth centers and I always wanted to do that myself," said Piazza. "Any of this stuff I've done hasn't ever just been me, but it's always been with the help of others who feel the same whether it's at the school or at the little league. I've always wanted to be able to give back to a community that gave me so much and I thank God that I've been given the opportunity to do just that." Former Boiling Springs softball player Grace McKinney, who now starts at Converse University, said that Piazza's love for the community, the program, and his players is what has shaped her into the person and player she is today. "Coach Piazza is a great man and coach," said McKinney. "He's a supportive person who was patient, knowledgeable, honest, and always could make you laugh as he has so much love for the Boiling Springs softball program, the players, and the whole community in general. I've learned so much about softball and life from him which has shaped me into the person and player I am today. The leadership and commitment he brought to this program will always be remembered and appreciated. I am just so grateful that I got to be coached by him and to have just been a part of his great success." Taylor Cabe, another former Bulldog player who was the starting pitcher on the Boiling Springs state championship team in 2013 and went on to pitch for Harvard University, also talked about the impact Piazza had on her softball career and made the game fun for her and her teammates. "Coach Piazza epitomizes leading with love," said Cabe. "He loves the game of softball and loved each of us as players and, more importantly, as individuals like we were his own kids. He brought a lightheartedness and fun to each practice and game all while pushing us to grows as players, a team unit, and people. I know the Boiling Springs program will miss him dearly." While Piazza has been a part of the Bulldogs softball program for the last sixteen years (2007-2022) as either a head coach or an assistant, he has also been a key member of the Boiling Springs Youth Athletic Association spending a lot of time as the president of the organization. He said that with his work with the youth league he has seen a lot of his players start as young kids and now move through the high school system, but that he now loves seeing a lot of his old players starting to be the ones helping coach the same youth leagues they once participated in as kids. "It makes me feel great as I've seen a lot of our old players out at the youth league fields coaching the younger generation," said Piazza. "It tells me that we've done something right because these girls want to come back out here and coach which just makes me proud as their high school coach and a part of the BSYAA. When we started the vision for this program at the BSYAA back in the early 2000's we started it because we wanted to win a state championship at the high school and we accomplished that. When I see those old players come by and tell me how much they still love me, that's worth more than anything." Piazza said that while he'll miss coaching, he said that what he will miss the most is the relationships that he has built over the years with players and coaches. "I'm going to miss the relationships with the players and the coaches I've worked with the most, along with the great relationships I've developed with the coaches I've coached against," said Piazza. "I'm really just going to miss the kids and the coaches the most of all as I've made a lot of great friends over the last sixteen years." He said that over his time as the coach at Boiling Springs he hopes that the one thing people remember about his teams is that they always competed. "I always believe that with or without the talent you have to compete," said Piazza. "I think if you talk to other coaches the one thing they'll always tell you that is our teams came to compete and while you might not always know which team was going to show up, we were there to compete. There's a difference in competing and just showing up. I think whenever people talk about hating to play Boiling Springs they're talking about the competitiveness of our teams, so you know when they say that you must be doing something right." When asked what's next for him now that he's leaving as the leader of the softball program, Piazza says for people to still expect to see him around the school and the community as his love for Boiling Springs hasn't changed. He said that he still wants to be a part of the program, as he said he's a big fan of the current leadership around Boiling Springs High School and even said that he may expand his role in the community to an area he had never considered until now. "I still want to be a part of the program as I'm a Bulldog for life, not just a Bulldog part time," said Piazza. "I'm really a big fan of the current leadership at the school as I think Mr. McQuigg and Coach Moxie are doing a lot of great things for the school. I told them when I made this decision that I still want to stay involved with things around the school because there's few events that I haven't been at over the years, as I think I can count on my hands the number of football games I've missed. I'm still going to keep doing my thing here with the youth league and I'm also looking into running for the school board in the near future." On a personal note, the people at the Boiling Springs Sports Journal want to thank Coach Piazza for all the help he has given to us in helping cover his program the last six years. The search for Piazza’s replacement began on May 11th and according to Boiling Springs athletic director Evan Moxie finding the next softball coach to lead the Bulldogs is a top priority. Comments are closed.
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