Bart Owens stepping down as Jefferson Davis softball head coach

    Blackville – The 2026 softball season for the Jefferson Davis Academy softball team didn’t come close to anything like Bart Owens would have liked. The Raiders went just 4-15, including going 0-2 in the SCISA Class A state tournament.

    That, however, has nothing to do with Owens deciding to step down as the head coach.

“It’s time. I’ve been coaching for 22 years,” Owens said. “I’ve been the head coach for six years, but I have been on the staff for 22 years.

    “I will be coaching varsity volleyball this year (for the 2026-27 school year) then I will be totally retired.”

    During his six years as softball head coach, Owens led Jefferson Davis to the 2024 Class A state title and to a runner-up finish in another year.

    Owens said there were a couple of factors that led to the Raiders’ struggles this year.

    “As far as the season we didn’t play as good good as I think we could have, but we played the best with the players we had,” Owens said. “We had lost a lot the last two years and had several key injuries this season.”

    Leading the way throughout the season were Kinlee Ray, Harper Still, Rynn Fickling and Abby Deering.

    Ray had far and away the best batting average with a .404 mark. She had team highs in on-base percentage at .509. in hits with 19 and runs scored with 17 while sharing the lead in doubles with three. She also had a triple, 10 runs batted in and 11 stolen bases.

    Fickling led in triples with three and RBI with 13 while hitting the Raiders’ only home run. She also had two doubles and 13 runs while batting .286 with a .400 OBP. Fickling worked 42 1/3 innings and had 47 strikeouts.

    Still had a .282 batting average to go with a .420 OBP. She shared the lead in doubles with three to go with six RBI and 12 runs.

    Deering had a .234 batting average while posting a .308 OBP. She had a double, nine runs and 11 RBI.

    Esme Montejamo led the team in stolen bases with 12 and had a .413 OBP with nine RBI and 12 runs. Natalie Black only had a .208 batting average but had a .472 OBP.

JDA BASEBALL GOES 11-12

After rolling to a 14-3 victory over Wardlaw in the opening game of its best-of-3 first-round series in the Class A baseball playoffs, Jefferson Davis found itself on the short end of the stick in the next two. The Raiders lost 7-5 and 4-2 to see their season come to an end.

    Even though it’s been two weeks since that, Jefferson Davis head coach Mannie Wright is still struggling with what happened.

“It’s still hard to believe,” said Wright, whose team finished with an 11-12 record. “Long story short, Wardlaw was just the better team in those two games. I think they were hungrier than we were, and we may have been looking past them.

“I feel like I let my guys down, my coaching staff down and let myself down. I felt like we had a great shot (at winning state). I told them this is on me.”

Harrison Ray led the Raiders with a .417 batting average and a .553 OBP. He also led in triples with two and runs with 27 while sharing the RBI lead at 22. Ray also had seven doubles

Corbin Perry also had 22 RBI while batting .288 and posting a .466 OBP. He had a team high eight doubles, to go with a triple and 26 runs.

Reece Still batted .359 and had a .518 OBP to go with six doubles, 26 runs and 18 RBI. Landon Williams had a .254 batting average, a .307 OBP, two doubles 11 RBI and 21 runs.

Perry was the top pitcher, working 44 innings with a 3.18 ERA. Still worked 35 innings and had a 4.00 ERA.