A former Mountain Home softball athlete and coach will be back in north central Arkansas for the 2025-2026 school year. Shelby Harris has been selected as the next head softball coach at Viola High School.
Harris says she is looking forward to coming back to the area for the sport she’s always loved.
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The former Shelby Anderson was a 2011 graduate of Mountain Home High School and one the most successful players from the Lady Bomber softball program. She was the starting pitcher when Mountain Home won the Class 6A state championship games in 2008 and 2010.
After high school, Harris continued her playing career on the collegiate level. She first attended Williams Baptist University in Walnut Ridge before transferring to Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva. During her time as a Ranger, she was an All-Great American Conference First Team selection her as a junior and received honorable mention as a senior.
Harris later returned to Mountain Home and joined the high school softball coaching staff. She had been with the Lady Bombers nearly a year-and-a-half when she was promoted to the head coaching position in June 2018. In two full seasons and another shortened by the coronavirus pandemic, she compiled a record of 41-21.
Just a few days after taking Mountain Home to the semifinals of the 2021 Class 5A State Tournament, Harris submitted her resignation to become the head coach at Clinton High School in Oklahoma. She says coached there one year, but then, life took her in a different path.
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Harris currently serves as the head softball coach and athletic director in Wheaton, Mo. The Lady Bulldogs only had one win in 2024, but their current record for this season is 8-5.
Harris will take the reins of a Viola program that has had a lot of success in Class 1A over the years, and she gives a lot of credit to her predecessor, current Lady Longhorns’ head coach Jason Hughes.
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In addition to softball, Harris will serve as an assistant coach for the volleyball program. Her duties at Viola will begin in August.
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