MURFREESBORO – Danny Hartsell knows his team well. He should, he has been coaching them a long, long time.

Hartsell led the Cocke County Lady Red to their best season in school history and to the TSSAA state tournament for the first time where they advanced all the way to the Final Four. A 37-9 overall record and a fourth-place finish were both school records and he did it with a group who were familiar with him as well as each other.

“This senior group I have coached since they were six-year-olds,” the CCHS boss said. “I was with them up through coach pitch and t-ball and was with them except for the last two years of middle school because I took the job here but watching them grow has been great.”

The Lady Red have enjoyed success the last several years, coming close to punching their ticket to Murfreesboro but never getting over the hump. That is until this year.

“Last year, we got beat in the sectional by Unicoi County, which was in the state tournament this year in 2-A after dropping down a division. I told our team we kept knocking on the door but if we ever got there, we would stay there. The hardest thing is to get to the state tournament and we did that.”

Cocke County was led by a pair of strong arms in the circle: Hailee Hartsell and Ellie Proffitt. Hartsell went 13-1 with a .73 ERA and 112 strikeouts. Proffitt went 12-5 with a 2.44 ERA and 143 strikeouts.

Proffitt also led the Lady Red from behind the plate, batting .538 with 57 hits, 15 doubles and a pair of homers. Brookelyn Strange led the team with six triples and was second in average (.438), hits (42) and RBIs (38).

The Lady Red had more key contributors across the lineup in C.G. McNeely, Meredith Grooms, Chloe Niethammer, Jaylee Lane and Bella Morris, amongst others. Each player was instrumental in making everyone aware of how much a force the Lady Red was going to be in 2026.

The team won 23 of their first 24 contests with seven of those being 10 or more runs. After a stretch where they dropped three games in a row, Cocke County rebounded and reeled off nine more wins in a row to get their mojo back. A 2-0 win over Gibbs, a team that has won multiple state titles, showed the Lady Red were ready for a deep postseason run. They beat Stone Memorial twice in the state tournament but lost a pair of games to McNairy Central to end the best season ever.

The softball team’s extended stay at the state tournament was part of an overall outstanding year at Cocke County. The basketball team also made it all the way to the Final Four and Hartsell said what his team did in the Spring was indicative of the success girls’ sports have had in Newport lately.

“There have been a lot of really good athletes in girls’ sports at Cocke County since they were five or six years old. This senior class, all the way down to the freshmen, has seen a lot of good ball. I’ve seen it in softball, in basketball, the whole county in general. Our school has great coaches, great leaders, great parents so that makes a big difference in our sports excelling. It’s not just our softball and basketball teams but soccer had a great year too. Our female athletes at Cocke County are really thriving and that’s a pleasure to watch.”

The Lady Red represented themselves, their school and their community well during the 2026 season and that is something Hartsell said he may be the most proud of.

“I get emotional about it when I think about things like that. To have the heart they have and to have the community behind them is big. We are a gusty softball team and it takes a lot of pride to play here. I don’t think it’s set in on them yet how much the community has backed them. Teenage girls don’t always think about things like that and they were mad because they lost that last game. I don’t think it will settle in on them for a few more years but it will.”