Peggy Berry

2019 Inductee

Any discussion about Ridgeland Softball must begin with the storied career of Ridgeland Hall of Fame coach Bama Smith.  It was coach Smith, after all, who was the architect behind the legendary state championship teams at Chattanooga Valley and, after consolidation with Rossville High School, the first state championship at Ridgeland High School.  Any discussion of Coach Bama Smith is, of course, incomplete without including the name Peggy Berry.  Indeed, during the peak of Coach Smith’s career, Coach Peggy Berry served as her faithful understudy, and if there was ever a case of the student eclipsing the master, it was this case.  In Ridgeland’s earliest days, Coach Berry served as assistant to Coach Krista Seckinger and Hall of Fame Coach Sharon Vantrease from 1994 to 1999, the original softball program belonged to her.  This, you will recall, was the golden age of Ridgeland softball, and under Coach Berry’s leadership, the Lady Panthers would reach third place in the state tournament, second place, and two GHSA state championships.  Along the way, Coach Berry was named the 1994-95 News Free Press Coach of the Year and assistant coach of the Georgia softball all-star team.  Her tenure was marked by the construction, with the help of her husband Butch and the Ridgeland community of the Ridgeland Lady Panther softball complex.  In 1996, Coach Berry reached the monumental 100-win milestone.  Coach Berry is synonymous with Ridgeland High School's softball greatness, but her greatest accomplishments are her husband, three daughters, and seven grandchildren.  It is my absolute pleasure to induct Coach Peggy Berry into the Ridgeland Hall of Fame Class of 2019.  

–Rob Stinson, 2019