June 2, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
Danielle Tyson Horton is making history at DeKalb County High School by becoming the first female head coach of the Tigerette Softball program.
DCHS Principal Bruce Curtis made the formal announcement Wednesday that Horton will be succeeding Coach Danny Fish as Tigerette Softball Coach.
“I am very confident in Coach Horton. She demonstrated this year her knowledge of the game and the girls seemed to respond to her well during practice. As a player I know she played hard and had high expectations for herself so I feel like she will bring that to the program,” said Principal Curtis.
Horton, a 2014 graduate of DCHS, is only the third head coach in Tigerette Softball history following in the footsteps of legendary Coaches Danny Bond and Danny Fish, both of whom she played for as a Tigerette during her high school years. This past year Horton served as an assistant to Coach Fish.
Horton and her husband Davey are the parents of a two year old daughter, Amelia and the family lives in Smithville.
“I am thrilled about this opportunity. Its a big undertaking because the softball program is very big in DeKalb County with a good legacy behind it and I am excited to continue that,” said Horton.
Originally from South Louisiana, Horton and her family moved to Smithville during her Freshman year and then she joined the softball program as a player
“I played here and was honored to be part of a program where they really took the time to develop the talents of the kids. They cared more about us outside of softball too so to be part of that and help continue that on and to help build the program is really honoring,” said Coach Horton.
After graduating high school, Horton furthered her education and softball career at Trevecca Nazarene University. She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in 2018 and is now working toward her Master’s Degree.
“At Trevecca I played softball in multiple positions including outfield, first base, and third base. I moved around a lot. I graduated there with an exercise science degree and was planning on a career in physical therapy but the Lord had different plans for me so I went back to school and ended up here at DCHS in the special education department working with Response to Intervention (RTI) students for Algebra and was named assistant softball coach last year,” said Horton.
When asked if her coaching style would differ from her predecessors, Coach Horton said there was no need to tamper with what has proven successful.
“Coach Bond and Coach Fish have set the tone for how the program has gone over the years and that has been successful with state tournament appearances, and the teams being competitive in district and regional tournaments and sub state so If I came in and changed anything that would be crazy. I believe part of my job is going to be continuing on with what they have done,” she said.
Coach Horton said the next step for her is to host a softball summer camp June 22 & 23 and then tryouts on July 25. “We did a fundamentals camp in April and it went well. I think it would be good to do another fundamentals camp especially for younger kids because learning those fundamentals is so important as you grow into a player and you always come back to the basics. The camp also gives me an opportunity to get more plugged into the community”.
As for next season, Coach Horton said the talent is there to have another good year.
“We lost two seniors but we will have five juniors returning as seniors including Ally Griffith, Morgan Walker, Aniston Farler, Madison Martin, and Emma Martin. We’ll also have other players returning including pitchers, Kora Kilgore, Bri Murphy, Chloe Lawson, and Gracie Randolph,” added Coach Horton.
Horton’s athletic record is as follows;
Played for the DCHS Tigerettes during the 2011-2014 Seasons
Individual Stats
2012 Season
All-District 8-AA Team
2013 Season
All-District 8AA team, All District 8AA Tournament team, and All Middle Tennessee team selection
2014 Season
All-District 8-AA Team
All District 8-AA Tournament Team
District Best Offensive Player
District Co-MVP
Miss Softball Middle Tennessee
Batting Average .556 and On base Percentage of .704
0 stolen bases during this season and a total of 64 runs scored.
TREVECCA NOTES -Taken from https://www.tnutrojans.com/sports/sball/2017-18/bios/Danielle_Horton
2017-18
Started in all 46 games she played in … hit .401 for the season which was fifth best in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference … in 142 at bats she scored 41 runs (3rd most in G-MAC), had 57 hits (9th most in G-MAC) and drove in 12 runs … also drew eight walks and stole 14 bases … her .437 on base percentage was fourth best in the G-MAC … named to the G-MAC All-Conference second team.
2016-17
Started in 44 of the 46 games she appeared in … Horton finished the year hitting .341 with 14 RBIs and 20 runs scored and 15 stolen bases … she was seventh in stolen bases in the G-MAC
2015-16
All-Conference second Team selection hit .347 with 13 RBI and 27 runs scored … tied for eighth in the conference in triples (2) and was fourth in the conference in stolen bases (14) she was second on the team in both of those categories
2014-15
Nationally ranked NCAA DII top 150 batting avg. … named to G-MAC All-Conference First Team and All-Freshmen Team … 13 stolen bases on 15 attempts for a team third best … batted .490 with runners on base, .483 with runners in scoring position, .448 with two outs … successfully advanced runners 70.9% of the time … 100% fielding percentage through 42 games with 37 starts, 95 catches for 92 putouts and three assists.