Bio

Head Coach Don Long begins as the first head coach of the Grizzly Softball program for the 2022-2023 season. With more than 40 years of coaching experience in the West Plains area having coached softball, basketball, cross country and track at Fair View School from 1972-2003 and then as the head softball coach at West Plains High School from 2005-2017. Coach Long also coached freshman boys baseball and basketball teams at West Plains High School from 2008-2018 and he has returned to his post as freshman boys baseball coach at West Plains in Spring 2022. 

During his tenure ast he Lady Zizzers softbal coach, he posted a 256-86 record, averaging 20 wins a season. He guided the Lady Zizzers to two Ozark Conference Championships; the 2016 district and sectional championships; and a quarterfinals appearance in 2016. His teams also were runners-up four times in the conference championships and placed second three times in districts.

Not only has Coach Long led the Lady Zizzers through some of their best seasons, he spearheaded the effort to form the program in the early 1990s by gathering signatures on a petition and presenting it to he West Plains R-7 School Board. The board agreed to establish a girls softball team, and Long served as a volunteer coach fo rthe team for the next four years.