Greenville softball coach Jerrod Newland guided his team to the state semifinals for the fifth time since 2007. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Julie Wright-Daniel)
Jerrod Newland leads the Lady Wave into the Friday’s Division III state semifinal with his dad and coaching mentor on his staff.
Akron, OH – Jerrod Newland became a softball lifer years ago. And it shows.
On Thursday, 26-and-a-half hours before his Greenville softball team takes to the turf at 101-year-old Firestone Stadium, Newland was in the old brick house, watching more softball.
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Not scouting, just watching, hanging with some of his assistant coaches, including his dad, wearing a lime-neon Lady Wave shirt, sunglasses in place and his well-loved bucket hat covering his head.
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He didn’t stay in the stands for too many innings. That’s a long time for an energetic coach to sit still. Later, he could be seen standing outside the fence just past the third-base dugout watching Southeastern play Cortland Maplewood in a Division VII semifinal.
Any softball, particularly in this setting, is good softball and worth the watch. Newland learned that growing up watching his dad, Greg Newland, coach at Springfield South, lead his team to the 1995 state tournament, amass 400 victories in 22 seasons and earn a 2008 induction into the state coaches hall of fame.
Jerrod started keeping the scorebook for his dad’s games when he was 7. His younger sister Sarah was a four-time all-Ohio player and two-time All-American for South while he was his dad’s assistant coach.
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Jerrod’s athletic pursuits could have taken a different path, but as his dad said, “He fell in love with the game.”
Jerrod played baseball and basketball at Springfield Shawnee and was recruited to play basketball at Wittenberg. But he wanted what his dad had: to be a coach. And what better sport to learn from his dad than softball.
So Jerrod gave up basketball and joined his dad’s coaching staff for Greg’s last half-dozen seasons, learned the game, how to build a program and how to relate to players.
Jerrod Newland, like his dad Greg did at Springfield South, doesn’t treat softball as a minor sport. “If you build it, they will come,” he says.
“He just said that his future in coaching was more important than playing a little basketball,” Greg Newland said. “So he gave that up, and I don’t think he’s going anywhere anytime soon.”
Eventually, the time came to leave the nest. Greenville offered him the head coaching job.
The Lady Wave hadn’t been winners. But in his first season in 2003 his team won 20 games. And the rest, as has been said millions of times, is history.
Since that first season, every one of Newland’s teams won 25 games or more. He said he would win a state title by his fifth season. And, in 2007, the Lady Wave defeated Akron Hoban 6-4 in the Division II semifinals. The next day they defeated St. Mary’s Memorial 1-0 for the championship.
Newland has been coaching ever since for title No. 2. In three other trips as a Division II team, he lost to the title winner.
In 2010, the Wave lost 5-4 to Hebron Lakewood in the semifinals. In 2012, they lost 7-2 to LaGrange Keystone in the final. In 2023, they lost 6-5 to Tallmadge in the semifinals.
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Now he, his legion of assistant coaches, a tidal wave of loyal fans and a young team led by the player (pitcher Ella Oswalt) he says will probably be the best he ever coaches, are back in Akron determined to make it title No. 2.
The Lady Wave (31-1), as everyone in Greenville knows, plays Bloom-Carroll (24-4) at 12:30 p.m. in Friday’s second Division III semifinal at Firestone. If Friday is a great day for Lady Wave softball, they will play for the championship at 8 p.m. Saturday against either Louisville (17-13) or Mansfield Madison (16-14).
Win or lose, Jerrod Newland’s place in Ohio softball lore is as secure as his dad’s. When Jerrod won his 600th game father and son had combined to reach 1,000. Jerrod, in his 23rd season, enters state play with a record of 640 wins and 108 losses for a winning percentage of 85%. He joined his dad in the hall of fame in 2018.
Jerrod Newland brought a young team to state this week. As his dad Greg said, “The future is bright.”
Jerrod established the same type of culture his dad nurtured at South, one that builds a winning program.
“Our philosophy is softball is not a minor sport,” Greg said. “Softball is as important as football and basketball, and he just basically has taken a community that is hungry for a winning program and certainly built a winning program.”
Now little girls in Greenville want to grow up and be part of the Lady Wave tradition.
“Field of dreams,” Jerrod said after winning the regional title last week. “You build it, they’ll come. Just to see the alumni here tonight it’s just awesome, man. I don’t know … kind of lost for words, and I never am.”
In 2016, Greg and his wife Sue moved to Greenville and he joined his son’s staff. This will be their second state tournament together with the Lady Wave. Greg’s job during games is to keep score in the Game Changer app.
“I love it, it’s a dream, it’s as good as it gets,” Jerrod said of coaching again with his dad. “If I do this for one more day, or for 10 more years, it’s just priceless.
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“He’s kind of my coach. He kind of tells me where I’m at and what I’m doing because I’m usually wrong. Just love him to death.”
The father-son ride doesn’t figure to end anytime soon. The Lady Wave are here with only two seniors. Oswalt, the team’s ace pitcher, is a sophomore. Catcher Jordyn McMullen is a freshman. The roster is young and deep.
More milestones are sure to come for the program and the coach who leads it.
“He is just is a disciple of the game,” Greg said. “I feel I taught him something, but he surpassed me in every accomplishment. I went to the final four one time. He’s now gone five times. And to be honest, the future is bright.”
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