Lady Buffs Softball

Ronald Roland

Softball Head Coach

Alma Matter: Southern Technical College

     Coach Roland started out coaching his son Roderick’s basketball team at the Penicks Boys club after returning home from three years of military duty in the United States Army in 1980.  In 1990, Coach Roland started coaching his 5 year old daughter Alicia’s softball team at a park named Little Oaks that’s located in Southwest Little Rock. By the time she turned 12, he built a softball team named the Naturals. The Naturals were a handpicked team that only play tournament ball during the summer. Coach Roland along with his assistant coach, Kenneth Phillips, led the Naturals to multiple state, regional, national and world championship series and tournaments; all of which the Naturals were successful. Coach Roland along with Coach Phillips coached every summer until all of the players (ages ranged from 8 to 16) were ready for high school softball.
     In 1998, Coach Roland was named the assistant coach at McClellan Business Magnet High School. During that year, the McClellan softball team went 14 and 7 and also made the playoffs. The following year Coach Roland was named the head softball coach of McClellan and led his team to a Regional championship. His tenure at McClellan continued until 2005.
     In 2006, Coach Roland was offered the head interim golf coach at University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) for one year.  Coach Roland was hired as an assistant softball coach at JA Fair Magnet High School from 2007-2010. While coaching high school from 1998-2010, there have been 15 players that has signed a letter of intent or has walked on and play collegiate softball. Most of the players (13) attended school in the Southwestern Atlantic Conference (SWAC); there they won 5 straight SWAC Championships together. One player signed with Tennessee State University in 2002, and the other played at Central Arkansas Baptist out of high school.