SOUTHERN SCRIBES: One Final Ride for the Perkins Duo

by Addy Burrow

“You know like daddy ball? Yeah, she’s not that. At all. I know she’s not and everyone knows she’s not.”

If you are familiar with baseball or softball you may be familiar with the term “daddy ball”. If you are familiar with Georgia Southern softball you might also be familiar with our mother-daughter duo of head coach Sharon and graduate student-athlete Katie Perkins. And if you are familiar with the Perkins, you would know that “daddy ball” couldn’t be further from the truth for these two. 

“Daddy ball” refers to biased treatment of youth players, typically children of coaches. With a collegiate softball coach as a mother, there was ample opportunity for Katie Perkins to experience this kind of conduct growing up. She was around the sport all the time, going to games with her mom, going to practices, and playing. She even got to travel with her mom, “I was able to go to a lot of things and travel with her on some away games and things like that,” Katie says, “so that’s just kind of a cool way to grow up.”

Coach Perkins chose to let Katie take the lead in her sports career. She wanted to give her the opportunity to choose whatever path she felt drawn to. Coach Perkins also had a different perspective on Katie’s experience growing up. She felt like she was missing a lot of her kids’ lives being gone for travel and games. This was what ultimately led to her leaving collegiate coaching to start the Sharon Perkins Softball Academy, where she coached individuals as well as a travel-ball team. Coach Perkins did not want her involvement with the sport of softball to influence Katie’s decisions on sports. Katie played several sports growing up and her mom wanted her to have the freedom to choose any, all, or none of them, “When she was little she played basketball and soccer and softball,” Coach Perkins said. “So, I didn’t want to push softball on her because that’s kind of what my name is in, you know, and I felt like that was kind of a lot of pressure for her.”

After her departure from collegiate coaching, Sharon Perkins was finally able to start coaching Katie herself, who was in seventh grade at the time. They learned from the beginning the importance of separating coach and athlete from mother and daughter. For Katie, Coach Perkins was not just a mom, she was a coach who had led very successful softball teams (she coached Georgia Tech to six appearances in postseason play) and brought a lot of knowledge and perspective to her athletes, “It’s really cool to get her perspective,” Katie said. “Like, I don’t think I would be where I’ve gone and where I am now if it wasn’t for her being able to coach me growing up.”

For Coach Perkins, coaching her daughter and other younger athletes helped her to develop as a coach. She was able to learn about the recruiting process from the outside and she was able to gain more perspective on communication and how to work with different kinds of athletes, “And I think it taught me a lot too,” Coach Perkins remembered. “I didn’t really understand, I feel, that kids learn differently… It was like, I had to find a way to get through to them, you know, and I realized that different people are on different paths learning wise.. So, I think that really helped me to come back into college coaching this time around.”

After continuing to develop as an athlete under the tutelage of her mother, Katie decided to continue her softball career at the University of North Carolina (UNC). Coach Perkins decided to go back into collegiate coaching and was hired by Georgia Southern in May of 2021, during Katie’s sophomore year at UNC. One and a half years later, Katie Perkins graduated with her bachelor’s degree and faced a decision about what was next for her collegiate career, both academically and athletically. It was the middle of the school year and she had to decide if she wanted to go to a big or a small school, to keep playing softball or try being a regular student.

Katie ultimately decided that she was looking for somewhere she could conclude her softball career on a high note, and she was looking for a good academic program that would allow her to get some work experience. She wanted a place where she would completely enjoy her experience and, for Katie, that was Georgia Southern, “Softball has been a part of my life, my entire life,” Katie said. “So, I want my last couple years, especially this one, to just end on a note where I’m proud of it and I’m just content with how it ended. And that’s kind of why I chose it, I just want to play and enjoy playing my final year.”

Coach Perkins had to take a step back from Katie’s decision this time around and watch from the outside. She tried to give Katie all the information she needed to make the best decision. From a coaching perspective it looked like a perfect fit. Georgia Southern needed a first baseman at the time and there Katie was, ready to fill that space. From the perspective of a mother, Coach Perkins didn’t want to influence Katie’s decision at all, “But again, I was just like, look, you know, it could end up working out for you,” Coach Perkins told Katie. “You see what we have. I mean you know; you can go back and watch games; you can come watch practice. I mean, this is who we have. This is who we have coming in. This is on you and what you want to do.” The most important thing in this process for Coach Perkins was giving Katie the freedom to choose, just like she did at the outset of Katie’s softball career.

Katie was excited to get to work with her mom again as a coach and she was fully ready to navigate their relationship as a coach and athlete, and their relationship as a mother and daughter. She had no doubts that Coach Perkins was going to push her to be her best and treat her just like any other member of the team. More importantly Katie knew that her coach would never put her in a position to feel external pressure because of their relationship, “She would never put me in a situation to where that could happen because if I don’t deserve a spot,” Katie says, “I’m not gonna get the spot. If I’m not performing, then someone else is going to come in and perform.”

While Katie had full confidence in her coach-athlete relationship, she held some reservations about outside perceptions of her being the coach’s daughter. How would her new team respond? Would they be uncomfortable or judgmental?

Coach Perkins had none of these reservations. She knew that her team would accept Katie with open arms, and she knew that this new experience would push Katie to find her place on the team and her style of leadership, “You know, it’s just a very welcoming team that we just have in general,” Coach Perkins praised her team. “So, I think she’s kind of come in and figured out what she’s good at. I mean, she’s really good, I feel like in a one-on-one setting, if she needs to, you know, pull a player to the side and they have a conversation. I think she’s very aware if people are going through things and things like that, I think she’s an easy person to talk to. But I think it’s good to have people like that on the team.” Coach Perkins was right in that Katie was able to quickly find her stride on the team and fit in seamlessly with her new teammates. 

It would have been easy for Coach Perkins to take the “daddy ball” route with Katie and use her influence instead of consistently pushing Katie throughout her career. But this was not, and is not, Coach Perkins’ way. She chose to let Katie forge her own path and supported her fully along the way. And this path led Coach Perkins and Katie to keep growing alongside each other and making each other better every day, “I think she just continues to – she keeps making me better,” Coach Perkins said about her experience coaching Katie. She says that not only does Katie balance her out and make her a better coach, but she allows Coach Perkins to create better relationships with her other players. They see her and Katie joking around, and they learn they can also joke around and have that closer relationship.

Katie has said that being coached by her mother throughout her life has given her perspective and experience that she would not have had otherwise. In addition to this, being here at Georgia Southern has taught her that she can enjoy softball again without the fear of making mistakes.

As the sports journey that they have had together comes to a close this season, we asked both Katie and Coach Perkins if they had any final thoughts.

For Katie, being here at Georgia Southern is the perfect full-circle completion to her softball career, “I guess I’m very happy that this is where I’m ending my softball career,” Katie explained. “It’s very full circle and not many people get the chance.. She [Coach Perkins] is the reason that I enjoy softball as much as I do and started playing softball, and so I don’t know how many people get to say that they get to finish their career with the person that did that for them. “

For Coach Perkins, she will miss having Katie and her personality around. She is excited for the opportunities Katie will have out in the “real world”, but this will be a new chapter for them, “I’ll probably miss her singing next year,” Coach Perkins joked. “Her and Dejah with their singing during practice. I don’t know, it’s just funny. I think she has the ability to just bond with so many different people in different ways. It’s almost like she’s a chameleon or something. She’s able to just kind of whoever she’s with, she’d able to have a great relationship with them, which is just I think a really, really cool aspect.”

It is clear that Katie will always greatly respect her mother as a coach and Coach Perkins is beyond proud of her daughter for who she is and all she has accomplished. Wherever this next season and chapter takes them, there is no doubt that Sharon and Katie Perkins will keep making each other better along the way.

You can see the Eagles back in action this weekend at Bash in the Boro where they will take on UMass and Merrimack in a double header.

Addy Burrow is a fifth-year senior at Georgia Southern who is pursuing a master's degree in profesional communication. She is also an All-American on Georgia Southern's nationally ranked rifle squad.