Beaty, 25, was hired by Sallisaw in June and is preparing for her first season at the helm of the Lady Diamonds, who open their fastpitch softball season on Monday at Stilwell.
She returns to Sequoyah County after finishing up work on her master's degree this summer at Central Missouri State and is looking forward to her latest challenge.
"I'm excited to be back down here, although it's a little different being at a rival school," Beaty said after a Lady Diamond practice last week. "Even though Roland's my alma mater, I'm here at Sallisaw to get the job done and produce the best team possible."
Beaty is a 1998 graduate of Roland, where she was All-State in slowpitch softball and a standout on the basketball court as well. She played for Bobby Walters, who she credits along with college coach Ron Faubion for inspiring her to get into coaching.
Roland didn't have a fastpitch program when she was in school, but Beaty played on traveling teams in Arkansas and was good enough to play the sport in the college.
She played fastpitch for two years at Eastern Oklahoma State College and went on to make the all-conference team at the University of Central Oklahoma as a junior. She then transferred and finished up her playing career as an all-conference outfielder for Missouri Southern, where she graduated in 2003.
While pursuing her master's degree at Central Missouri State, Beaty worked on their coaching staff and also coached at a pair of high schools.
"I was busy," she said.
The experience paid off when she landed her first head coaching job.
"I was ready to be a head coach," said Beaty. "I've had three years as an assistant and have college experience. I've done exposure camps and clinics for the past four years, so I was prepared."
She jumped right in with the Lady Diamonds, who had been playing in a summer league at Panama under the direction of Scott Farmer, the head slowpitch coach who is also assisting with the fastpitch team.
"Scott Farmer had been doing a great job working the girls and I just picked up from him," she said. "During the month of July I set up one day a week for kids to come up and they surprised me. We'd have five or six and some of them would even come back twice. That tells me that some of them are dedicated and want to get where they need to be."
Beaty has high expectations for the Lady Diamonds and is looking to build on the success of former coach Larry Coleman, who guided the team to a winning season in 2004 before joining the varsity football staff this year.
Individual improvement from each player, another winning season, a district title and a good showing at the regional tournament are attainable goals for this year, said Beaty.
The new coach has been putting the Lady Diamonds through two-a-day preseason workouts in order to meet those goals and she's been impressed with the way the girls are coming along.
"The first day out here I thought I was going to kill them," laughed Beaty. "They were kind of dragging the first day and I was a little worried. But from the first day to now there has been a huge difference. They've been working hard and they know I'm not going to lower my expectations. I'm going to continue to push them and I think they're ready to be pushed."
Beaty said pitching and defense are team strengths, but hitting is a concern.
"We have a pitcher with the potential to throw-Amy Smith is one of the better ones in the area. She's got some breaking pitches and has a little heat when she's in control. We do have a pitcher, but we need depth," said Beaty.
"Our fielding fundamentals are there and that's going to help us, but we're weak on batting. We've been working hard on that. If we can't hit the ball, we're going to bunt every time. If they throw us out every time then they've played one heck of a defensive game. If we can get a bunt down, we'll be OK."
