Up Close: Broad Run Softball Coach Ed Steele

By Matt Brooks (Contact)

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Over the past three years, no Loudoun high school sports team has been more successful and more dominant over the rest of the state than the Broad Run softball team. Earlier this month, the Spartans notched their third consecutive Virginia AA state championship and their fourth since 2000. The architect of the well-oiled machine that rolled through the Dulles District each of the last four years is head coach Ed Steele.

A longtime Ashburn resident, who this past year moved with his wife to lakeside community in Winchester, Steele began his coaching career with the Broad Run wrestling team before taking over as the softball coach in 1992. Along with his coaching duties, Steele has taught science for 25 years at the Ashburn school. He currently teaches chemistry and advanced placement biology and serves as the department chair for science.

In this phone interview with LoudounExtra.com, Steele discusses the keys to his success as a “manager,” how his teams have dealt with the pressure of being a favorite to win it all year after year, and his favorite aspect of coaching.

Q: How did you get into coaching softball at Broad Run?

A: When I got to Broad Run in 1984-85, they needed a temporary softball coach. They had somebody coming in the next year but they just needed someone to fill in for that season. They asked me if I could do it and I said, “Sure, why not.” So I got interested in it as a sport, and then my daughter played it in high school in Fairfax County. It was kind of simultaneous. They had no open positions for a while, but finally in 1992, they had an opening for the head coaching job and I applied for it. Fortunately for me, I’d had some success in wrestling and they said, “Why not give him a chance.”

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Up Close: Broad Run Softball Coach Ed Steele

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Broad Run softball coach Ed Steele is all smiles. After a disappointing loss in the 2006 state semifinals, his Spartans have now won three consecutive state titles. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Ed Steele high fives his team during a 1-0 victory over Potomac Falls during the 2008 season. That Spartans' team was a perfect 23-0 and went on to win the school's second consecutive state championship. (Rich Lipski)

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Broad Run softball coach Ed Steele looks out over the field from the dugout. Over the past four seasons, his Spartans have a combined record of 108-4. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Broad Run Head Coach Ed Steele and star pitcher Caitlyn Delahaba embrace after the team won its second straight state championship in 2008, defeating Tunstall 4-0. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Broad Run Head Coach Ed Steele leads an indoor practice on a rainy spring day. Steele has coached the team since 1992, making him the longest tenured coach at the Ashburn school. (Rich Lipski)

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Q: Obviously, the physical nature of wrestling is different from softball and coaching boys versus coaching girls provides a different set of challenges. How were you able to transition between the two?

A: There will be people who’d tell you I never did make the transition. Just like anybody, on the job training. I learned how to do a better job just from trial and error. But also, when I first started coaching softball, things were different. I got skilled athletes that I recruited from teams that were in different seasons, but I basically had to teach all the fundamentals – even how to throw – at that level. Now it’s like rather than being a coach, I’m more of a manager.

When I transitioned from wrestling, it was more like fundamental drills. It was more like a wrestling practice where you had to practice, practice, practice certain things to get good at them. Now, they’re good at individual things, you just have to put them together to make a whole player and a whole team. Really the hardest thing you’ve got to do is get everyone believing that what they’re doing is just as important as what everyone else is doing so that everybody feels like they’re contributing.

Q: The run over the past few seasons has been incredible by all standards. Was there ever a point early on, when you started rattling off the wins, did you ever think, “I could have three straight titles in a row. I could be 108-4 over a four-year span?” Did that ever come into focus where you thought, “Wow, this is pretty special?”

A: In 2005, we lost a couple of seniors but we had a lot of good freshmen. When those girls came in and took over in 2006, to a great degree, the team was stronger. We really thought going into that season that we had a shot at a state championship that year, really just from practice. We had a bad game and we didn’t win it, but we won 26 in a row, so heck yeah, I figured, “We should have two in a row after this.”

Before this season I still had quality proven talent – four starters from the year before – and so you think, well, we could do it. But we had a lot of injuries at the beginning of the season and it wasn’t as apparent. Once the playoffs started and we got past our final big injury, you could just see the seniors were healthy and doing well and the young kids that had been taking their place were able to contribute. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We weren’t dominating, but we knew we could do it.

Q: After the 2008 state title game, you mentioned that you never once worried about winning or losing during the season because you thought your team would win every time out. How has that mindset helped your teams be so successful the last few years?

A: You figure we gave up three runs the entire season, all of them in one inning. So every inning we played, no matter who pitched or who we played, they didn’t score. Your confidence level is going to be pretty darn high. I don’t care who you play, you know you’re going to win. That’s one of the things that helped this year. The carryover of it was, Broad Run softball doesn’t go into any game thinking they’re going to lose, or even wondering if they’re going to lose. We know we’re going to win, and when we don’t we are extremely disappointed and we go back to the drawing board to try to figure out how to correct whatever the problem was. To me, that was a big factor leftover from the seniors graduating and the seniors that stayed on the team.

Then, in the finals, you’re playing Tunstall and you figure, you already beat them twice. They’ve got to figure you walk on water or know where some stones are. It has to be in the back of their mind, “These guys are really good, and can we beat them?” We had no doubt we were going to win, even in the 11th inning. Not a kid on our team doubted it.

Q: After that first loss to Stone Bridge this season, did that thought change? Did you and your players have to adjust your mentality in any way?

A: The next night we won in extra innings against County, which we really had to win. That could’ve been a determining point, because, if we lose that game – which we could’ve easily done – then what happens to your season? You lost two games in a row, you didn’t beat County and they’re in the district and you’ve got to beat them to win it, and so on. But we did pull it out. Every time we lost and had a setback like that, the kids came out stronger the next game.

Q: What do you think the prospects are for next year’s team?

A: You’re losing the pitcher and you’re losing the catcher and that’s the heart of any team. So the question’s not going to be, can we field. It’s going to be, can we have a quality pitcher and a quality catcher? They’re obviously not going to be a familiar package. So how well can they adapt? If you ask me two weeks after practice starts, I can give you a better answer.

Q: How has the success of your team, coupled with the success of girls’ soccer and other spring sports as well as the football team’s state title changed the athletic climate at Broad Run?

A: Obviously, everybody’s upbeat and the school gets a lot of recognition. You can pick up a paper and find a story about baseball or lacrosse. I suppose the kids are pretty proud of their school. And I do think that success breeds success. So you’re going to get kids who want to try out for lacrosse who maybe are strong athletes in other sports. It seems to me that a kid can come in and play for a team like that and really find a niche for themselves, and they’re proud to do it because they’re playing on good teams. I don’t know individually, but I think winning certainly helps the climate of sports at our school.

Q: What is your favorite thing about coaching?

A: I’ve always liked interacting with kids. That’s why I became a teacher. I didn’t really start coaching seriously until I was 40. I guess I like the results. I love seeing kids grow from neophyte freshmen, and in some cases just in the season you see a kid who gets their confidence bolstered. You just watch them grow up and its neat to feel like you might have had a little bit of an influence on how that occurred. I think that’s probably the biggest thing. I love having kids come back and when I ask them what they’re doing they say, “I’m teaching biology because I took your class” or “I’m coaching Little League softball.” It’s just neat working with people and helping them grow. Winning is nice, but I like coaching for just the daily interaction.

Q: What is one of your favorite places in Loudoun, and why?

A: I’ve always liked Algonkian Park because I like to go fishing and I like to go boating. It’s a very peaceful, relaxing place for me.

Q: Tell us something about yourself that would surprise our readers.

A: I love to read. I probably read 100 books a year on all kinds of subjects. That’s my biggest hobby besides anything I do in the outdoors. My wife says I’m very simple, I like to do certain things and that’s all I do, and maybe she’s right. I have a passion for reading and obviously, I love biology. I live on a lake now, so I like those kinds of things.

Extra Points

By Paul Tenorio and Matt Brooks