Memphis Softball Just Needed Some Love 

Memphis Softball Just Needed Some Love

Written by Wes Pruett

It did not take long for the Trena Prater era to make history. A fresh coat of paint has been put on the program and the wins are piling up. Memphis Softball has set the record for most consecutive wins to start a season, with five, following a clean sweep of the 901 Classic. Yes, we are aware that we are just a short portion into the season but this should still be celebrated. 

We sat down with Prater following the opening weekend for a candid conversation on her program. In this discussion, we would learn much about how she uses her positive energy, faith, and love for the Memphis program in more ways than wins. 

Positive Energy

We began the conversation by asking about the energy that has penetrated this program. Prater transparently told us “I’m an emotionally passionate coach, right? I believe in energy, I believe in positive energy, and I believe in perspective. I believe in celebrating the little things and this team is working hard. They deserve everything that they’ve earned so far, and I’m just excited to see how the season continues to unfold.”  when discussing her energetic personality. 

Later in the conversation, Prater peeled back a personal layer of how she approaches the daily stresses of being a D1 softball coach. She spoke about work but not on the field of play. Prater told us  “No, it’s work like really I pray, I listen to gospel music, and I always tell myself am I trying to arm myself coming into the day I know the challenges and they need me to attack all the outside noise that comes with being in this position.” followed by saying “I just try to prepare myself to you know, put the ear plugs in on anything negative and just try to find the positive.” when doubling down on her heavenly approach to not only her life but daily throughout that life. 

This positive energy has permeated more than the roster as you are seeing more fans come to home games as well as more chatter on social media. This has been a wholesale approach by Prater as the positivity and positive energy are in all posts from the program. 

Letting Leaders Lead

When speaking on the opening weekend of success we mentioned two players, Zoe Adebayo and Neely Taylor, as two who stood out on the field. The word “Zoe” did not exit our mouths before we watched Prater smile from ear to ear. In return, Prater went on to be very open about what these players mean to the program. 

In the case of Adebayo, Prater told us “She’s our leader. She’s our emotional leader. She keeps the team connected. She runs the locker room.” after an impressive weekend from the senior. This would be seen in the postgame celebrations as her teammates were dancing, smiling, and enjoying some early success. 

In allowing her players to lead, Prater has been allowed time to instill the workings of a successful program. She {Prater} mentioned this as she told us that “All championship teams have some sort of leadership from the top in that locker room that makes the team successful.” as she praised her seniors on the roster. 

We then asked about a Tiger who has been clawing to get back to action. Taylor had been out of competition for 21 months due to a long recovery from an injury. With this, Taylor also suffered many setbacks on her path back to the field. We would again see a smile appear on the face of Prater as she told us that “ Neely is a workhorse” before unveiling a story regarding just how hard the sophomore works. Prater revealed that before the opening weekend, Taylor would text her “Can I see the schedule from when the other teams are going to be in the cages. So I can get in and get some extra work on my own.”. This impressed Prater as she was informing her staff that she “I screenshot her to schedule, you know, each day she was in there just on the tee, getting her swings in all by herself.”. 

With this character-building work from Taylor, Prater did not let this go unnoticed or unappreciated as she would tell 4 Star Sports “She got to put in the work and then you reach your harvest. So I was very, very excited for her because she was very eager to get out there. And she had a great week of practice to earn the starting position.”
Prater told us that she often informs her players that “There is no secret to success. There are no shortcuts and that hard work always works.” 

Write Your Own Story

We have noticed that Prater has mentioned to the team about “Writing Your Own Story” in postgame meetings. We asked not only about the origin of this but also how the story of Prater has helped mold this. 
We would again see full transparency from the head Tiger as she spoke of her college career, at LSU, and how her team was the first to accomplish many achievements. With this, she told us she “Always instilled that, try to instill that in my teams that I coach.” She would go even further by not shying away from the challenge that Memphis presents. 

When speaking on the story of Memphis, Prater told 4 Star Sports she “Didn’t shy away from the facts. I liked statistics, I tried not to make emotional decisions, so we looked at the record book and we saw that the four worst years in Memphis softball history were the last four from a record standpoint.” 

These abysmal years motivated her to instill this into the 2025 season as she sees much greater things with essentially the same roster. Prater informed the roster that “it’s up to us this year to rewrite our story to be on this side of history.” and they accomplished much through their first five games. 

Loving On Them

The title of this piece is “Memphis Softball Just Needed Some Love” and we believe, based on the conversation with Prater, that the program has finally received the love it deserves. Prater told us she had to rebuild the roster from a confidence standpoint. In essence, they needed to “Buy In” to yet another staff. The difference is that the current staff has started to accomplish this. 

When speaking on the state of the program, Prater told us “ I think they bought into the fact that we were very skilled. We just needed to work like this group just needed to be loved on.” followed by “When I first did my zoom with the whole team, I said, I’m going to find out right. Is it a skill thing? Is it a drive thing? Is it heart, but my number one goal is to make you guys love softball again? Because nobody likes to lose. So I’m sure you don’t like showing up every day. So our job is to go back to when we were kids.”

Her approach was to get back to the basics of  “ Why did we love showing up? Why are we playing?” and this has been a success as she saw “None of you jumped in the transfer portals. So you’re happy. I guess you love Memphis.”

This confidence was  “kind of across the board. When I had my one-on-one with all of them, they enjoyed being in Memphis.”. So, Prater said “All right, let’s raise the level of our program.” and through five games they have. In the end, Prater continues to do what she has always set out to do, and that is to change lives. 

If you were to ask Prater, she would tell you she is doing greater work than just softball. To further this, we will close with this quote that we believe sums up what Prater has done thus far. 

“I just feel like God has ordered my steps in many different places for different purposes and at each stop at each school that I’ve been at I’ve been able to have a positive influence and impact young women’s lives.”