For Mark and Anna Catherine Segrest, Elmore County softball's resurgence is a family affair

Why did Mark Segrest leave Edgewood Academy, a school where he'd won two straight AISA state softball championships, for Elmore County, a program that had a losing record every season from 2015 to 2019?

Location was part of it.

"We wanted to move to the lake," Segrest said with a chuckle.

So with Lake Martin a stone's throw away, Segrest set about building the Panthers from the ground up. The results have been better than anyone could have foreseen — anyone except Segrest, perhaps.

Since Segrest took the head coaching job in 2020, Elmore County has gone 96-30-1. The Panthers' latest victory, a 10-4 win over Tallassee in last Thursday's Class 5A Central Regional title game, sent them to the state tournament for the second season in a row.

"I wouldn't say expected is the right word," Segrest said. "But when you work hard and have the right attitude, usually good things come. ... I'm not totally surprised."

Elmore County (37-12-1) will take on Rehobeth (32-8-1) on Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. in the first game of the eight-team, double-elimination tournament at Choccolocco Park in Oxford.

TOP PERFORMERS: Here's who stood out around the River Region during the second week of May

22 IN 2022: Here are the top Montgomery-area softball players to keep an eye on this season

BEST OF: Meet the Montgomery Advertiser 2021 All-Metro softball team

The Panthers have one of the state's best pitchers in Aubrey Allen, an Alabama State signee who has a 1.21 ERA in 254 innings. They're also potent at the plate, with eight players batting above .300 and Anna Catherine Segrest, Morgan Spear, Madelyn Becker, MacKenzie Smith, Hailey O'Brien and Ashtyn Pannell slugging above .550.

Anna Catherine — Mark's daughter — is a junior third basemen who leads the Panthers in batting average (.436), RBIs (53), doubles (21) and slugging percentage (.684). 

"He's been there since I was 6 years old when I started playing," Anna Catherine said of her dad. "He's been my No. 1 supporter, the person I spend most of my time with, and he's just a great coach and a great dad."

Mark began coaching Anna Catherine in travel softball. The father-daughter tandem won two Dixie Youth World Series titles before Mark started at Edgewood midway through the 2017 season. In 2018, Anna Catherine joined the program as a seventh-grader.

"It's hard work to play for him," Anna Catherine said. "He's not an easy coach to play for, but he does it the right way."

Added Mark: "She's a really good player, great teammate. It's just a double bonus for me being her coach and her father."

While Anna Catherine loved Edgewood and her teammates there, she said that since switching schools, she's learned "so much more about life in general."

"The chemistry of this school and this softball team at Elmore County is something I really like," she said. "... There's something different about this team."

The Panthers went 1-2 in last season's state tournament, including a one-run loss to eventual champion Satsuma. This season, their sights are set higher.

"The reason I do it is so these girls can enjoy it," Mark Segrest said. "Elmore County's not had a ton of softball success, so for them to be able to come and do it two straight years is just a blessing."

Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com, by phone at 334-201-9117 and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.