How UCLA softball alum Tara Henry balances journalism, coaching Great Britain

As Great Britain's head coach walked to home plate to shake Oklahoma City Spark head coach Amber Flores ’ hand before the game, she carried an underlying level of knowledge and perspective with her.

Because there, Tara Henry was not only the coach the Spark was facing, but also the journalist who had been writing about them.

“It’s quite interesting,” Henry told The Oklahoman after the Spark's home opener last Thursday at Devon Park. “But I get to watch games every single day, so I’m in the game. I’m in the sport of softball. It’s been fun balancing the two.”

Henry was an outfielder at UCLA and started giving private lessons after she graduated in 2007. However, for her master’s degree she attended the University of Brighton in Eastbourne a decade later and was drawn to softball at the international level.

Through the lens of someone who had known the sport, as it was played and prioritized in America, and had won an NCAA title with the Bruins in 2004 , the game felt different across the globe.

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“I think it’s incredible,” Henry said. “We’ve got different teams, different cultures and different countries all across the world. I think it’s a beautiful experience to bring these people together and to play the sport.

“International softball is fun. It’s not college softball. It’s its own entity, and something that I truly believe is growing at an exponential rate.”

Henry started coaching Great Britain's National Team in 2022, but she had previous exposure to the game in other countries through Run the Bases — an organization she co-founded — which fights gender inequality through sport and education programs.

But Henry also balanced her coaching career with journalism, and merged two worlds that hardly ever collide — especially not simultaneously or within a single individual.

She was named the co-editor of D1 Softball, a website that reports on collegiate softball in the United States, in 2019, and was recently announced the general manager of Softball America, an editorial site about the current players and future prospects in the sport, earlier this year.

Her own experience playing and coaching gave her a deep understanding of softball and exposed the hidden aspects of the sport that are not usually understood by the public. However, journalism provided Henry with a birds-eye view of the game.

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And together, each part of her life made its opposite better.

“I think the two go hand in hand,” Henry said. “I mean, as a journalist, I get to watch a lot of games. I get to watch a lot of strategy, and I get to really analyze what other coaches are doing and how I could bring that to my team. But I think being a coach allows you to see the game through a different lens and really analyze what's happening on the field.”

Great Britain fell in both games to the Spark during the second Royal Spark Challenge, but as she continues to grow the game internationally, the coach will bring her lifetime of knowledge and experience with her.

Although in Henry’s own life the two worlds are intertwined, and have proved to, at times, be challenging to navigate, she has learned how to keep it separated and balanced.

That way, as she walks to greet opposing team’s coaches at home plate, questions about which person — journalist or coach — don’t need to be asked as she extends her hand.

“Coaching Great Britain internationally is put in one box,” Henry said. “I am also fortunate that I am able to cover college softball, but for me, the two are different, so it’s easy to separate.”

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How UCLA softball alum Tara Henry balances journalism, coaching Great Britain