All-American Flashback: Ashley Courtney (2002-05)
11/18/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball
In honor of Alabama softball's 20th anniversary, rolltide.com will be catching up with our 20 former All-Americans in a series of features. Our seventh feature is with Ashley Courtney (2002-05), an outfielder and catcher who earned All-America honors as a freshman and a senior.
Ashley Courtney bookended her Alabama career with a pair of All-America honors as a freshman in 2002 and a senior in 2005. A versatile player who played both outfield and catcher at Alabama, Courtney, now Ashley Bangert, initially wasn't interested in leaving the borders of her home state of Florida for college.
"To be honest, growing up I really wasn't aware of the SEC at all," Bangert said. "Alabama was ranked No. 2 in the country when they first started to recruit me but I was sure I wanted to stay in Florida. I had no idea they were as big of a powerhouse as they were at the time. The whole thing was fate. Jackie Wilkins' mother passed along my name to the coaches and they showed up at one of my games, sat next to my parents and it all unfolded from there."
Regardless of where she went, softball was always part of the plan, even if it was just a ticket to a college education.
"I wanted to play softball," Bangert said. "For me, it was my ticket to an education. I come from a family of five children and it was the only way for me to pay towards getting the education I wanted. At first, it was all about finding the school that could best cover the expenses and make the numbers work. That all changed when I visited Alabama on my official visit. I honestly fell in love with the team, the coaches and the atmosphere. We weren't even there for a home football game, it was an away game that we watched in Lacy Prejean's apartment. The entire atmosphere of Alabama felt like home from the minute we stepped on campus."
Bangert's father, Steven Courtney, was a high school softball coach in her hometown of Vero Beach and knew the typical college recruiting tactics all too well. However, even he was susceptible to the very tactics he warned against after spending a day in Tuscaloosa.
"Alabama was the last visit I took out of my five official visits," Bangert said. "It came two weeks before the signing period so it was very last minute. For all four of my other official visits, my mother and father made sure I didn't verbally commit to the school on the spot. We wanted to make sure that we talked everything through. I remember sitting in Coleman Coliseum because, at the time, softball had a little clubhouse in there. We were sitting there and all of the t-shirts, uniforms and other gear was on display and they had a stool there with my name on it. Coach [Pat] Murphy was talking about what it means to be a part of a family and what it means to be part of the Alabama tradition. At the very end he asked, 'who wants to come to Alabama?' and I look over at my dad and he has his hand raised. He was ready. The man who told me not to commit made his own commitment on the spot. We were ready, it all made sense."
Bangert was a catcher by trade and eventually earned All-America honors at the position her senior season. However, when Bangert first arrived in Tuscaloosa, All-SEC catcher Lacy Prejean was the incumbent behind the plate which forced Bangert to transition to the outfield to keep her bat in the lineup. The majority of Alabama's All-Americans have been outfielders and that has a lot to do with Tide associate head coach Alyson Habetz, who works directly with them. Habetz has been a fixture with the program since arriving in 1999 and provides a tremendous amount of support for the players, both on and off the field.
"Aly was the one who really recruited me," Bangert said. "I got to experience the essence of Aly's excitement, love and passion for what she does. The minute I first saw her she opened up her arms to meet me and hugged me. I thought, 'Wow these people from Alabama are really friendly!' I wasn't used to hugging people I didn't know. Aly was very patient with me. I wasn't an outfielder by design. I had always caught and, when I wasn't catching, they just threw me in the outfield to keep me in the lineup. When I got to Alabama I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I was a bull in a china shop. Aly always came early and stayed with me late, hitting fly balls and helping me with diving.
"My favorite part of having Aly as a coach is her ability to relate to you on a more personal level and understand who you are. When you go away to college, it's tough to leave your life behind but she was like a mom away from home. Many times we'd sit and drink coffee at the coffee shop and she'd help me through school problems, family problems or softball problems. I don't think I would have been as successful as I was at Alabama if it weren't for having her guidance on the field and, more importantly, off the field. She helped me be the person that I am today."
Despite the transition to a new position as a freshman in 2002, Bangert made a great first impression at Alabama, earning All-America honors with a team-leading .402 batting average and 74 hits. At the time, she was just the third Tide player to hit above .400 in a season and the third Tide player to be named an All-American as a freshman. The previous two in both categories were Kelly Kretschman and teammate Jackie McClain.
"I think [my freshman success] had a lot to do with my sheer ignorance to what I was really walking into," Bangert said. "I didn't realize just how great the program really was. I just liked to play and I was going to do whatever it took to play. If that meant working harder in the weight room, showing up early to practice or staying late, I was going to do whatever I could. I just wanted to be out on the field and do what I love. The competitive nature in me is the biggest reason why I had the success I did. I wasn't willing to be second best."
As it still is today, Alabama vs. LSU was one of the biggest conference rivalries in Division-I softball during Bangert's four years with the Tide. Alabama lost all three series against the Tigers to start Bangert's career but finally pulled through with a series sweep in Baton Rouge during her 2005 senior season. Alabama shut out the Tigers, 6-0 and 13-0, in the opening games and secured the sweep with a 7-1 win in game three. Bangert drove in four runs over the series, including a solo homer in game one.
"I always felt like playing LSU was a big to-do," Bangert said. "Playing them at home or on the road was always a tough series. They typically took two out of three from us and I remember my senior year we ended up sweeping the series on the road. I remember the look on Coach Murphy's face at the end of that and how proud he was to finally take the series. It felt great that we were finally able to do that for him."
That senior season culminated in Bangert's second trip to Oklahoma City for the Women's College World Series, having previously made it as a sophomore in 2003. The difference in attitude for Bangert and the entire team from the first trip to the second was evident.
"The first experience was shock and awe," Bangert said. "You couldn't believe you were there. You couldn't believe that ESPN was all around taking interviews and were constantly aware of where you were on the softball field at all times. You felt like a superstar and forgot how important it was just to be the same person you always were when you play. You tend to feel like you have to play outside of yourself but the real deal is, by the time you become a senior, you realize that the reason why we are here is because of who we were before we got here. It just comes with maturity and experience. The first one, you're just excited for the opportunity. After you do that and you fall short, from then on it's more important to win."
Alabama did earn a win at the WCWS during Bangert's senior season, defeating DePaul 2-1 on a walk-off RBI single by Capper Reed in the bottom of the 12th inning. The Tide would be eliminated the following day however, falling 4-0 to SEC rival Tennessee. Bangert's senior class as well as the one behind her helped guide Alabama to its first back-to-back WCWS trips in 2005 and 2006 and featured plenty of personalities that Bangert remembers to this day.
"I had a great class I graduated with and the one behind ours," Bangert said. "The personalities there were so much fun to be around. You always had a great laugh when you got together. Any time we had team dinners it was always memorable. One of my favorite parts of game day was just being in the locker room with the girls before or after a game. They were a trip. They were so much fun to be around. I was more of the one who sat in the corner and just watched it all, but their personalities were so vibrant that you couldn't' help but sit there and laugh with them. That was something that, once I graduated, I really realized how much I missed it."
The lessons learned as a player at Alabama have applied to Bangert's life after graduation, which includes stops as a player, a coach and a teacher.
"After I graduated I spent a summer playing in Boston for the New England Riptide," Bangert said. "I had a great time but all the injuries I had over the years finally bottomed out and I decided that was enough. I went back and coached a year at Troy as an assistant coach and then jumped into teaching. That's what I've always wanted to be since I was in kindergarten. Ultimately that's what Alabama helped me to do.
"I have always felt like Coach Murphy took things much further than just teaching me softball. It was so important to him that once we left, we knew how to speak to people properly, how to shake someone's hand and how to interview for a job. I tell him frequently that the lessons I learned about life were so much more valuable than the lessons I learned about softball. I've carried those into my life now as a teacher and coach. I've wanted to pass that tradition on about how to be a good person and teammate. Lessons about the comradery that's involved with being a team and the teamwork that's involved with being successful. It's not just about playing the sport, but more importantly about being a good person and following through with the things you say you're going to follow through with. You need to set high expectations and make sure you achieve those. All of those values were more important than the wins themselves."
Bangert is a fifth-grade teacher in Sebastian, Fla., where she lives with her husband Kurt and their newborn son Kason. Softball is still a large part of Bangert's life and she has returned to where it all started.
"I have coached softball teams in the area, including my alma mater, Sebastian River High School," Bangert said. "I guess I fulfilled the Courtney family destiny since my father was the coach there before me. It was kind of a great transition to see him go from head coach to an assistant under me!"
