Club News: Patrick Lewis & His Former Georgia Impact Title-Winning Team Move to the Bombers Organization

After years of winning titles, including ones at 18U PGF Premier Nationals, Head Coach Patrick Lewis has announced that he is leaving the Georgia Impact organization and will be taking his team to compete for the Bombers Fastpitch Organization.

Lewis, who is President & CEO of Superior Rigging & Erecting Co., one of the top crane rental and steel erection construction companies in the Southeast, explains that he loved his time with the Impact organization and is now looking to grow the sport further by partnering with Scott Smith and his Bombers organization that has spread from coast to coast.

“I have spent 14 years with the Georgia Impact trying to affect as many young ladies as we could in a positive way and allow them to reach their potential and their dreams,” Coach Lewis told Extra Inning Softball on Monday.

“That has always been what we have been about,” he continued, “the player and helping them become the best they could be. I feel we have done a good job of that and the list of players that we have had the privilege to coach speaks to that. I am extremely proud of what has been accomplished and the brand that we were able to build with the Georgia Impact.”

So why make the change… and why now? Lewis was asked.

“At our board meeting at the start of this year,” he responded, “it became clear that the vision and values of the club no longer aligned with mine personally and that of my staff’s and what we are trying to accomplish.”

“At that time, I made the decision to start discussions with other opportunities out there and started our diligence through those discussions. The main goal was to create a partnership where our vision and values aligned with the other. Through all that diligence, we kept coming back to the Bombers organization and Scott Smith.”

“Our vision is aligned to grow this sport,” added Coach Lewis, “and provide as many opportunities as we can for young athletes to achieve their dreams while also helping younger coaches get better and allowing us to get better through a collaborative experience. We are extremely excited and honored to be a part of Bombers Fastpitch and can’t wait to get started.”

If you’re gauging travel ball success by wins on the fields as well as player development, Lewis and his outstanding staff of coaches receive high marks across the board.

In 2018, his Impact team won PGF 18U Nationals and finished 2^nd in 2019 and 5^th in 2021. Prior to the move to 18U in 2016, Lewis coached a 12U ASA team that finished 3^rd.

As for being a pipeline to get athletes to the next level, few have had the success that the long-time coach has had, especially when it comes to getting players into the SEC over the last few years.

The list includes Dallis Goodnight (Alabama, 2021 grad), Jaiden Fields (Georgia, 2019), Karley Heath (South Carolina, 2019), Charla Echols (Florida, 2018) Skyler Wallace (Florida, 2018), Hannah Adams (Florida, 2017), Jana Johns (South Carolina, 2017), Ashley Morgan (Tennessee, 2017), Haven Sampson (Florida, 2017), Gabby Sprang (Tennessee, 2017), Ava Tillman (Ole Miss, 2017)… to name some going back just last five years alone.

*** See the more in-depth list below of Impact alums playing at the college level!

“We currently have 10 percent of the roster spots available in the SEC “with former players,” Coach Lewis explains, “and nearly all of them are contributing which would take our participating rate to north of 20 percent of all SEC players.”

And, he adds, “of the current Top 25 college teams, we have contributors on 12 of those ranked teams.”

The current team is also loaded with talent with players already signed or committed to universities such as (alphabetical order) Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, LSU, Minnesota, Ole Miss and UCLA among others.

The players and standout coaching staff, which includes Lincoln Martin and Rick Jaegle, will also be transitioning to the new team that will compete as “Bombers Gold Fastpitch 18U – Lewis” (or a variation thereof).

Lewis says the Bombers organization and the ideals of program head Scott Smith matched everything he and his coaching staff were looking for in an organization.

“It’s just the fit right,” Lewis added. “Our vision is aligned with theirs and I was impressed with Scott’s integrity and how he wants to do this for the right reasons: for the athletes.”

Understandably, Smith—who is the National Program Director and Head Coach of the Texas Bombers 18U squad—is ecstatic to have the new team added to his organization, which already is nationwide in 28 states with 169 teams.

“It’s good for us as a program and it’s good for the sport,” Smith believes. “The addition of Patrick, Lincoln and their entire group is game-changing for us. Their ability to coach players up at the highest level will be incredible for our growth in the Southeast including the Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama areas. I could not be more excited than I am to have those guys leading the way for us going forward in that part of the country.”

Smith admits he was caught off guard when Lewis first reached out to him.

“Initially, yes, when Patrick reached out to me, I was taken back,” the Texan concedes. “Here you have one of the Top 5 teams in the country asking if we’d consider working with them as an option and my initial gut feeling was, ‘Absolutely!’”

“As I sat back and thought more about it,” Smith remembers, “it really came to me about how impactful this would be for the sport, to have the opportunity to do some really cool things side-by-side with Patrick and Lincoln. It’s really exciting for Bombers Fastpitch, for sure, and I know I’ll learn a ton from them and, hopefully, they’ll learn some things from us, too.”

Interestingly, as the Impact has recently been a competitive team at PGF Nationals and the Bombers were a finalist at The Alliance Nationals last Summer, the new Georgia Bombers team will continue to compete at PGF Nationals.

“We will continue playing PGF and we get to continue on our schedule as it’s set right now,” Lewis continued. “Everything will stay intact—our players, our coaches and our schedule will all stay the same.”

With the joining of the two teams under the one organizational umbrella, it begs the question—good naturedly, of course—which of the teams, the Texas Bombers or the new Georgia Bombers 18U squad, would win on a neutral field today?

“In general, it’s the sport that wins,” the Bombers head man offers first. “Honestly, it’s not structurally lined up that we’ll play each other at ton, though we may run into each other at Top Club as we’ll both be there.”

“However, we’ll created training formats and opportunities to play against each other and there will be a lot of games where no one will know who wins,” Smith adds. “But that’ll be the fun part—getting to work and train together to make everyone better. Still, I promise you this: I wouldn’t want to play them a whole bunch!”

To Coach Lewis, it’s a case of “rising waters raises all ship” when it comes to the organization–and sport–being elevated.

“Ultimately,” Lewis says, without knowing what Coach Smith answered, “the winner is softball in general. You take two talented teams like ours and we’re competitors—we want to beat each other’s brakes off—but we want to work together and grow the sport, too. There’s an opportunity for everyone to collaborate and this proves that you can work together and create opportunities for everybody.”

Yes, I pressed in fun, but who would win?

“If we get to a championship game,” the long-time coach concluded, “it proves that we did it right to make it about the kids. The outcome… that will take care of itself!”

— Brentt Eads, Extra Inning Softball

*****

Patrick Lewis-Coached Players at the College Level

Explains Coach Lewis:

“This is a sample list of players that we had the privilege to coach. If you read through the list and of those players that spent more than one year in our program, they are major contributors at their school.”

*****

Team USA Members

• Charla Echols

Team USA JWNT Members

• Hannah Adams
• Charla Echols
• Skylar Wallace
• Kelley Lynch
• Julia Cottrill
• Bailey Dowling

Florida 

• Hannah Adams
• Skylar Wallace
• Charla Echols
• Cali Decker
• Lexie Delbrey
• Haven Sampson (former)

Alabama

• Bailey Dowling
• Dallis Goodnight
• Jenna Johnson
• Alex Salter
• Kyra Lockhardt (former)

LSU

• Savannah Stewart
• Ali Newland
• Mckenzie Redeoutey
• Morgan Cummins

South Carolina

• Jordan Fabian
• Bailey Bettenbaugh
• Riley Blampied
• Zoe Laneaux
• Alex Fulmer (former)
• Jana Johns (now at Oklahoma)
• Rachel Vaughn
• Leah Powell
• Karly Heath (now at ULL)

Washington

• Kelley Lynch
• Raigan Barrett (former, now at Liberty)

Ole Miss

• Ava Tillman

Georgia

• Jaiden Fields
• Sydney Osada
• Sara Mosley (Played until 14’s)
• Aniyah Black

Tennessee

• Ashley Morgan

Oklahoma State

• Julia Cottrill
• Savannah Evans
• Katelyn Carwile
• Scotland David

ACC

• Bailee Zeitler – GT
• Grace Conelley – GT
• Katie Goldberg – UVA
• Gabby Teran – Syracuse
• Annie Dalton – UNC
• Taylor Green – UNC
• Hailey Jensen – UNC
• Kelsey Bennett – VA Tech

Note: there are, according to Coach Lewis:

“A ton of other players playing at different schools like Penn State, Ohio State, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, etc.”