After Coach Betts led the 2022-2023 West Branch Warrior softball team to an Inter-County Conference (ICC) championship win, the team was seeded first in the District 6 tournament. After flying through the D6 playoffs they had a tough loss to Claysburgh Kimmel in the championship game causing them to place 2nd in District 6. Despite the tough loss, they were not done yet as they had already qualified for the PIAA ‘A’ tournament. After winning the first round of state playoffs, they lost in the second round to Union which eliminated them from the tournament and ended the 2022-2023 softball season.
After the Lady Warriors ended their amazing and thrilling 2022-2023 season Coach Betts announced at their end-of-season banquet that he would be retiring from being the head varsity coach position and would be leaving the West Branch softball program. Coach Betts has been a softball coach for many different teams over the past 25 years. He coached for 16 years for the J.O. softball program. He then moved on to the West Branch Jr. high team for two seasons as a volunteer coach and then three seasons as head junior high coach. After that, he became the varsity assistant coach for one year and then took over the program for four years as the varsity head coach. When his first season as head coach was approaching, COVID-19 came around and ended the season before it even got started. Although his first season as head coach got canceled that didn’t stop him from having fantastic and successful teams the following three years.
As much joy as coaching brought him, Coach Betts had a long and tough decision to make. Coaching softball was a big part of his life and made a big impact on him and his daughters. His daughter, Hannah said, ”Softball was a very big part of me and my sisters’ lives and brought us all closer together.” He definitely will miss coaching but plans on still attending and cheering on all of the girls during the games this coming spring just on the other side of the fence. With Coach Betts retiring West Branch is looking for a new Varsity head coach!
