Softball head coach Stacey Rice has had her hands full recently with not only coaching, but with raising a 16-month-old daughter at home with her husband, Scott. Rice, a SRU graduate, raises her daughter, Harper, alongside her husband Scott, another SRU graduate, with their family dog, Webber.
“It’s a lot of fun, more fun than you know we ever thought it would be,” Rice said. “But it’s exciting to watch her grow and develop and learn and we also have a dog so family of four.”
At just 16 months, Rice says Harper is starting to show her personality with lots of laughter, and Rice says she is happy with the fact that Harper is a great sleeper, which makes mom and dad great sleepers as well.
“(Harper) probably got that from me, she likes to sleep,” Rice said. “She is giggling a lot, she’s very happy, she’s generally just a happy kid.”
During her time at The Rock as a student and athlete from 2004-10, she met her husband Scott, who was also on the baseball team. The two met at the beach back in 2006 when both the softball and baseball teams went down in Florida for their beginning of the year tournaments, but they didn’t start dating until 2009 when Rice was in graduate school.
The couple got married in June 2011, and Rice describes her husband as a straightforward thinker, due to his background in accounting and taxes.
“(Scott) is a little more black and white when it comes to his thinking,” Rice said. “We definitely play on each other’s strengths and weaknesses. He’s the math guy, I’m the reading person. I’m more creative in my thinking, he’s very to the book.”
Rice says her and Scott really are trying to encourage Harper to get involved in sports or anything that might keep her occupied. Even though Rice and Scott both came from baseball and softball backgrounds, Rice says that they will encourage and support whatever she chooses to do when that day comes.
“Sports really played a really important role in our lives and so we would hope that she would get that same benefit, but which sport it will be, I don’t know, we’ll see,” Rice said. “It would be nice to definitely watch her grow in the game that I love, but it would also be really cool to maybe watch her thrive and excel in something else where I can maybe just be a fan.”
Being a part of her daughter’s life is something that is very important to her and Rice says she wishes she could be there more, which is very difficult because she can’t be everywhere all the time.
“It’s definitely a challenge, work life balance, especially being now a mother,” Rice said. “When you’re married or just have a relationship it’s a little easier because you’re both adults and you can work through those things.”
Parenting and coaching are the same in many ways, and Rice believes that both are the same because you have to have some sort of system in order to be most successful.
“You have to have a philosophy and you have to surround yourself with people who believe in that same philosophy,” Rice said. “I recruit kids who believe the same things that I believe and what we want to accomplish at the end of the day.”
Rice will enter her fourth year as The Rock’s head coach when the team kicks off their season when they travel to Myrtle Beach, SC. for their annual Myrtle Beach Softball Tournament on Feb 16.
