Callie Beaver spent eight years playing softball at a high level.
First at Webb City High School in southwest Missouri, where she went to the state semifinals three times and was a state champion as a freshman.
She then landed at Park University, where she earned all-conference honors twice and was part of a team that reached the NAIA Championship tournament.
Callie Beaver
Beaver is only days away from having her first official practice as a head coach. The Platte County assistant softball coach will be the head coach this fall when the Pirates take the field for practice on Aug. 6.
Though she was around the program as a coach on Rob Davenport’s staff, she has gained a better knowledge of team during weights this summer with the players. She has been working with them and has seen the competitive side of the group come out.
When the softball – and baseball – head coaching positions became available after the school year following the resignation of Davenport, Beaver decided to try for the opening.
“My dream is to be a head coach and run my own program,” she said. “When the opportunity presented itself, I thought what do I have to lose? It is a great opportunity, a great school and a great district and the girls … I had a great relationship with them. They are all awesome and I instantly knew I wanted to apply to see how things went.”
Beaver, who will enter her third year teaching American history, will be assisted by Steve Elliott and Lauren Parrish.
The new Pirates head coach hopes to take a little of knowledge from all of her stops playing softball, using something from each of her mentors.
Her high school coach, Walter Resa, guided a program at Webb City that was a powerhouse. In 21 years at the helm, he won 498 games, two state championships – 2007 and 2004 – won 17 conference titles, 16 district titles and made the state semifinals 10 times. He was inducted in the Missouri Fastpitch Hall of Fame in 2010.
When Beaver was on the team from 2007 to 2010, the Cardinals won a state title her freshman year and was third-place finishers her sophomore and senior years. Beaver was an all-state softball player (2010) and all-state track and field runner (2009).
She then went to Park and played for Amy Reif and Steve Tingler, while earning all-conference honors twice.
Under Reif’s guidance, Beaver learned more the mental side of the game, having to analyze the fielders before what she was going to do at the plate. In high school, Resa moved her from a right-handed hitter to a left-handed batting slap hitter.
While at Park, Beaver had four different majors, unsure of what she wanted to do after college. Her mother, Elaine, suggested she do an observation at a school. A teacher at Webb City, she told her daughter she would quit bugging her if she would give it a try to and go in with an open mind about it.
“I knew from then one I wanted to be a teacher,” Beaver said. “Softball has always been a passion and I could coach too and that would be amazing.”
She did her student teaching at Platte County High School and was a volunteer assistant.
“I wanted to coach,” said Beaver, a Daktronic NAIA Scholar Athlete in 2014. “I saw all the positive things softball brought me and I wanted to try to bring those positive things and characteristics I learned to other girls.”
Being a head coach won’t be the only change for the new Pirates mentor. She will be getting married later this year to Richie Peoples, a fellow Webb City native that played baseball at Missouri Western State University. He now is a construction engineer for a company in Riverside.