Alyson Habetz blazed the trail for young female athletes in L.A. 

Alyson Habetz, appointed to serve as the fifth head coach in Louisiana Softball’s storied history on June 25, 2024, is an inspiration to young female athletes and legend in the fields of baseball and softball. 

Habetz’s journey as an athlete was anything but ordinary. When asked to share her story, Habetz said, “I feel like I was born with a ball in my hands because I had four older brothers and a dad who coached baseball, so baseball was always my passion.” Habetz is the youngest of eight children, and the daughter of Deanna and the late Leonard Habetz of Crowley, Louisiana. 

Habetz shared that at the age of 10, she had the chance to meet Tommy Lasorda, the manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers at the time. She said, “I met him, and after meeting him, I wanted to play for the Dodgers.” He gave her his business card and told her to write to him. She said, “I wrote him, never thinking he would respond but he responded to every letter I sent and we became pen pals.” 

She added, “When I got to high school there was a Louisiana rule that said girls weren’t allowed to play on boys teams. I was devastated because if I am gonna play for the Dodgers, I gotta play high school baseball.” 

In response to how she felt about not being able to play high school baseball, Habetz said, “I’d been playing since I was seven, I only played baseball, I was a baseball player. So it was the norm for me and for everyone in my community, they knew I played baseball. So to play in high school was kind of the natural next step.” 

“To not play because I was a girl, what do you mean I can’t play baseball?,” she added. 

In order to fight for the sport that she had known and loved since she was little, Habetz ended up taking the state of Louisiana to court. During which time, she would get frequent calls of encouragement from Lasorda. She also had support from her family and the community. Thanks to her strong support network and her love and passion for baseball, she gained the strength to power through the court case at just 15 years old. 

Habetz ended up winning the court case. After about a year and a half, Louisiana finally changed the rule, and she got to play in her junior and senior year of high school. Habetz became the first girl in the state of Louisiana to play high school baseball. 

Habetz shared that she learned a lot from that experience of taking Louisiana to court, “If you truly believe in something and you know you are doing the right thing for the right reasons then you should fight for it.” 

After high school, Habetz received a scholarship to play basketball for University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL) – now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She also eventually tried out for the softball team after discovering the sport and its similarities to baseball. Habetz was a 1,000-point performer in basketball and as a member of the softball squad, earned third team All-America, All-South Region, All- Louisiana and Academic All-America honors. In 1993, Habetz and the Ragin’ Cajuns made it all the way to the Women’s College World Series. 

After graduating from USL in 1995, Habetz went on to play baseball in the professional league with the Colorado Silver Bullets for three years, and with the Long Beach Aces for a year. 

Patrick Murphy, Louisiana Softball assistant coach at the time when Habetz was on the team, called her to help build the softball program at the University of Alabama. Habetz was still playing for the Aces and also preparing to go to law school when she received the offer. She went on to coach Alabama for 25 years. 

Habetz helped guide Alabama to six Southeastern Conference (SEC) regular season titles, five SEC Tournament titles and 14 Women’s College World Series appearances. In 2012, the Crimson Tide won its first national championship, the first for any SEC program. 

Habetz helped build Alabama’s softball program from a time when fastpitch softball was an unfamiliar form of softball. She shared that watching the sport grow in not just the school, but also the state of Alabama was a fulfilling experience for her. She said, “What an amazing journey in the sense of helping build the program, just being a part of something that’s bigger than yourself and watching it grow.” 

Habetz shared that in her coaching experience with Alabama, she had preached for selfless team play. She said, “The fabric of the program was something called mudita; mudita means having vicarious joy for someone else’s success as if it were your own.” 

Habetz said that she hopes to coach the Louisiana Softball team in a similar way. She said, “Hopefully in my time here, that’s the blueprint that I coach from in the sense of being selfless and playing for something bigger than me and really loving my teammates and having a bunch of sisters who just fight for each other and with each other.” 

She added, “When you have athletes who are together and truly fighting for each other and they love each other then the trophy is filled with a lot of the special memories, the blood sweat and tears that they all have together.” 

Habetz is an inspiration to all the athletes under her guidance. Her passion and sincerity in guiding her players is shown in her desire to help them become the best version of themselves and knowing their purpose, value and worth as a player and as a person. 

Habetz said, “They all have greatness within, they just sometimes don’t see it, cause they’re too busy comparing themselves to someone else.” She added, “I’m passionate about finding their greatness and bringing it out, whatever it takes, so they can have fulfillment in showing off their greatness, however that may look like.” 

In response to the growth of sports for females, Habetz shared, “Sports in general for females has grown so much, it provides more opportunities for little girls to dream of one day playing professionally or one day playing in college.” 

Habetz’s journey and experience as a female athlete in Louisiana paved the way for many young female athletes in the state to have equal opportunities to play the sports that they love. She said, “It’s truly fulfilling to know that you were kind of a part of that journey and watched it grow.”