Kim Pinkham’s Lemon Bay softball team won the first game she ever coached … then lost the next four, prompting her husband to say, “They’re gonna fire you.”
“Honey, no, they’re not,” Pinkham said.
That was 2004.
Lemon Bay did not fire her and all she did was win another 265 games, three district championships and a regional championship over the next 20 years before she decided this week to fire herself.
After a fashion.
“I kept thinking a couple of years ago, I’ll stop at 18, I’ll stop at 19,” Pinkham said. “I should have stopped last year on 20. It would have made more sense, but no, I said let’s go for one more.”
At issue: Her son is now 8. Old enough to have activities of his own, old enough to know when she has been gone for too long.
“Last year he was doing stuff and I would help, but I could only be there a little,” Pinkham said. “I found myself, when I wasn’t there, I was disappointed I wasn’t there, so it’s time.”
Lemon Bay first broke through under Pinkham during the 2011 season, which marked their first regional playoff appearance since 1999. The Mantas didn’t miss another regional bracket for the rest of that decade, advancing to the regional championship round in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2019.
Prior to that decade-long run, Lemon Bay had only advanced beyond districts three times in school history.
It took a global pandemic to snap the streak, ending the 2020 season after just seven games. Pinkham said that year’s team was poised for another deep run and might go down as one of the most enjoyable teams she had.
“Bailey Grossenbacher, Christain Chandler … Ella Kraszewski came in here and was like, ‘Here I am to pitch’ … and then we’re done,” Pinkham said. “It was literally a ‘what could have been’ sort of thing.”
It was the accumulation of deep runs and near misses that made the 2023 season the most enjoyable of all. The Mantas were streaky that season, but when they were on, they played with a joy and confidence that emulated their coach.
After losing at Hardee in the district championship, the Mantas drew a rematch with the Wildcats in Wauchula to open region play the following week.
After years of punishing draws, fortune finally favored Lemon Bay. After winning the rematch with Hardee, the seventh-seeded Mantas found themselves in the semifinals against No. 6 Cypress Lake, which had upset the No. 3 seed. The resulting 1-0 victory sent Lemon Bay to Tampa for a regional championship showdown against No. 5 Robinson, which had shocked top-seeded LaBelle.
What followed at Robinson was an epic, 1-0 win in 10 innings fueled by senior Zoey Mills’ dominant pitching and game-winning RBI double in the top of the 10th.
“It was just fun to be a part of because it was such a good competition to watch inning-to-inning,” Pinkham said. “Watching Zoey from the first year she played for her high school, the growth she had, from what she came in with to what she was doing at the end, it was awesome.”
Afterward, Lemon Bay athletic director Ryan LaVallee approached Pinkham and said he needed to reserve a hotel for the state championships.
No need.
“You know, there were so many times when we got to that regional final game and there was just a mountain in front of us and it was a case of ‘We’re happy to have made it this far,’” Pinkham said. “Walking into those places and seeing the championship banners … talk about intimidating.
“But then (in 2023)? That’s the first time I’d ever booked hotels before we played. When it was (Robinson), I said I’m booking this. We’re gonna do this,” Pinkham continued. “Of course, we didn’t tell anyone we did that, but it was just a different feeling. It was definitely that, ‘Finally, thank God’ moment.”
After making the decision to come back in 2024, Pinkham said she knew this season would be her last and told her assistant, Sean Strickland, as much.
“I had told Sean at the beginning of the season that it was highly likely,” Pinkham said. “This was most likely going to be it and as we went, I was thinking just be done and go move on and just go enjoy.
“When you have a little kid upset that you’re leaving for another evening and probably not seeing him until the next morning, it weighs on you,” she added. “Now it’s time to go and coach his team and have fun.”
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