Stephanie Hartness takes a swing at helping South Effingham softball team

GUYTON — Among the many things about softball Stephanie Hartness learned at the University of North Georgia, controlling attitude and effort remain engrained in her coaching basics.

“My college coach (Mike Davenport) used to always say there’s only two things you can control: your attitude and your effort, and if you’re always giving that, nothing else matters,” said Hartness, now three weeks into her new job as an assistant softball coach at South Effingham High School.

“I will forever say that line. You play on a dirt field, you play on bad grass, the ball takes a bad hop, an umpire misses a call. There are so many things out of your control. But if you can focus on the two things you can control, the game will be fine.”

Hartness, 27, couples things she can control with an amazing resume from her playing days that should resonate as a hitting coach.

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After transferring from Florida State, Hartness, the native of Niceville, Florida, blossomed at North Georgia. She was a two-time Division II All-American center fielder while helping the Nighthawks to a combined 102-21 record in 2016 and 2017.

She’s the career leader at UNG in batting average (.457), slugging percentage (.766) and on-base percentage (.525).

Hartness holds the Nighthawks’ single-season marks in batting average (.459 in 2016), runs scored (69 in 2017), total hits (92 in 2016) and total bases (158 in 2017).

The Florida State online media guide said Hartness chose uniform No. 3 because it was Babe Ruth’s number.

Now can this sultan of swat help add an ingredient to a Mustangs’ region-contending squad that often relied on pitching and defense?

Hartness, who has been an assistant coach for six years, came from Northside High in Columbus. Hartness learned about the SEHS coaching vacancy after Mustangs head coach Jessica Evans left for Mary Persons, but she didn’t think she was ready for a head coaching job. Instead, she inquired about joining the staff as an assistant.

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Adam Newland eventually landed the head job, but another softball position opened when SEHS head baseball coach Todd Eubanks (also a softball assistant) left for Woodland High.

Hartness already had her resume at SEHS and seemingly was in the on-deck circle.

“When I started looking up the school and its softball program, I saw that not only is it a great school but the softball program has a history of success, and I thought this is a place that I can help and we could get to the next place we want to be,” Hartness said.

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South won 28 games in 2020 and 23 last season, but failed to get past perennial powers Buford and Pope to get to that next place it wants to be — the Elite Eight tournament in Columbus.

The season is only five weeks away. The Mustangs open on Aug. 6 against North Atlanta, a team that won 21 games and its region a year ago.

“We’ve been working a lot of fundamental drills the last three weeks and just rolling from there,” Hartness said. “In July, we’ll fine-tune things. That’s our game plan.”

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: South Effingham High hires Stephanie Hartness as softball assistant