Ward Named AAC Coach of the Year

Fitch softball head coach Steve Ward has been named the 2026 All-American Conference Coach of the Year for Girls Spring Sports as voted upon by the league this week. As described by the AAC: “This award goes to the coach of a Spring Girls' sport who led their team in a manner that exhibited excellence and success in their sport as well as outstanding leadership qualities during the Spring season. Each school nominated one of their respective coaches whom they felt showed all of these qualities while leading their team on their respective field or arena of play.”

Ward led the Lady Falcons to an undefeated regular season with a record of 22-0 overall while his team also completed an 8-0 sweep of its conference opponents by outscoring Boardman, Canfield, Harding, and Howland by a combined 105-12 en route to winning the AAC Championship outright.

Including league play, Fitch shut out nine of its twenty-two regular season opponents and reached double digits in scoring in sixteen games. The Lady Falcons outscored opposing teams 266-43 which dwarfs the national averages for runs scored (144) as well as runs allowed (129). The team also put up 36 homeruns, more than quadrupling the national average of 8, and made good on 81 of its 85 stolen base attempts for a whopping 95% success rate as opposed to a national average of just 47%.

The Lady Falcons also helped Ward reach a major milestone this season as he picked up his 200th career win in a 6-0 shutout against rival Boardman on April 27 before finishing the regular season with six more victories to bring his career total to 206. That number will hopefully increase for the Fitch Class of 1997 alumnus as he and the team get ready for tournament action.

As of this writing, Fitch is the #1 ranked team in OHSAA Division 1 and is ranked #3 among all schools in Ohio. The Lady Falcons begin postseason play by hosting Canton McKinley in the OHSAA Division 1 District Semifinal on Monday, May 18.