By RICHIE HALL
When Brian Revercomb was hired as the Westfield High School softball head coach, he was the Shamrocks’ fourth coach in seven years.
That was in 2016. Revercomb has led Westfield for the past decade. This past season was his last, however, as Revercomb announced that he is retiring from coaching.
The Rocks will be the only high school program that Revercomb coaches; he was a travel ball coach for six years before that. Revercomb supervised the Westfield team that won a sectional championship in 2023, the first time a Shamrocks softball squad won a sectional title.
“It was a good week of softball for us, for sure,” said Revercomb.
In Revercomb’s first season, Westfield won its first two games, beating Monrovia 19-1 and Crawfordsville 10-0. It was a good start to what the coach said he wanted to do.
“I just wanted to help develop some consistency and start building some traditions there,” said Revercomb. He noted that the Rocks didn’t have a winter workout program and were focused on hitting for the two weeks of practice before games.
“We developed a whole year-round program to develop relationships, to get to know the kids, instill some of the things we wanted to do and the mindsets in the program,” said Revercomb.
Westfield improved steadily throughout the years and were awaiting a breakthrough at the sectional, where the Shamrocks had to contend with Fishers, Hamilton Southeastern, and Noblesville, which beat Westfield in four of the first seven years of Revercomb’s tenure.
But the Rocks broke through in 2023, beating the Millers in the semifinals before getting past the Royals 1-0 in the championship game. Revercomb said after the game that the sectional title victory was “eight years of a lot of work.”
Revercomb noted that it had been decades since Westfield beat Noblesville and Southeastern.
“When you’re going to compete against those guys and you get a couple wins against them, those are always huge wins,” said Revercomb. “It made us relevant. They couldn’t overlook us anymore.”
Along with the softball success, Revercomb wanted to make sure his players were successful as people as well. He referenced Avery Parker, a standout player for the Shamrocks who is now having a solid career at Indiana University.
“We talked about person over athlete,” said Revercomb. “I always cared more about the person than the athlete. It’s great that a kid like Avery Parker hit 16 home runs in her senior year, but it’s even better the person she is.”
Revercomb’s approach worked. Two of the coach’s players from his first season, Ashley Swartout and Dory Thompson, are now coaching the Westfield program. Revercomb also mentioned players that are now in the working world, getting married and having children of their own.
“It’s nice when they carve out a little bit of time to come back and say ‘Hi,’” said Revercomb.
Revercomb said that he’s always wanted the softball program “to be about the kids.” When asked if he has left the Shamrocks program better than when he found it, Revercomb said he has.
“I think the kids are super talented and they’re working super hard, because know they’ve got something they can go fight for, because they believe they can,” said Revercomb.