By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
ALABASTER –
After the AHSAA gave Kevin Todd the Class 7A state softball championship trophy, he didn’t let the trophy stay in his hands for long.
The first person he passed the blue map to was his daughter Kaleigh Todd Furuto, and the Thompson Warriors mobbed her in celebration while Todd fielded questions from the media.
It was a moment that showcased the bond between father and daughter in Todd and Furuto’s first season as the co-head coaches of Thompson softball, and one that was just the latest chapter in a decades-long journey for the duo in the sport they both love.
“It means a lot to me,” Furuto said of coaching alongside her father. “The memories we’ve shared ever since I was four to now, they just keep growing and getting better.”
Their softball journey began when Furuto was introduced to the sport at just four years old. Furuto would go on to play softball for many years to come and take her skills to the big stage.
Furuto was a three-time All-State selection with McAdory and went on to win Class 6A Hitter of the Year from the ASWA as a senior in 2014. In that season, she went .620 at the plate, which still stands as the 22nd-best season by an Alabama hitter in the fastpitch era.
She went on to play college softball at South Alabama, where was a two-time All-Conference First Team selection for the Sun Belt in 2016 and 2017. She was also an All-Region Third Team selection in 2017 and a Preseason All-American pick by Fastpitch News.
Furuto still ranks in the top five in five different statistics in the Jags program history, including second in career batting average and third in career on-base percentage and stolen bases. Those numbers helped her ink a deal to play professionally for ASBA Pro.
Once her playing days were over though, she moved into coaching and found a perfect fit with her father at Thompson.
Furuto became an assistant in 2021 and quickly gained her father’s trust. In 2022, the pair made history with Thompson’s first state championship since 1999, accomplishing the feat in just their second season together on the coaching staff.
Over the course of the next two seasons, Todd entrusted Furuto with more and more. She took the lead with pitchers and catchers while assisting Todd with the infield, and their teamwork resulted in two more state tournament appearances in 2023 and 2024.
Her role had morphed into a more equal one with her father during that stretch, and Todd noticed. He adjusted Furuto’s title accordingly to co-head coach ahead of the 2025 season.
Todd said the decision was not to add more responsibility to Furuto but simply to reflect the reality of their coaching dynamic.
“Other than the first two years, ever since then, she’s had the same responsibilities and coached the same, so the only thing that’s really changed the last three, four years is just her title,” Todd said. “She still does everything and I think this year maybe she took a little more leeway or I gave her a little more…but she’s been doing it for three or four years.”
It’s not unprecedented for softball teams to have co-head coaches. Auburn operates on a similar system with Chris and Kate Malveaux as co-head coaches.
To share head coaching duties successfully though, it takes a unified vision and strong communication, both of which Furuto said come naturally with her father.
“Really ever since I came on, he trusts me with a lot and our communication is really good,” Furuto said. “We share the same passion for the game and the same morals and beliefs, so it’s really just an easy transition honestly.”
Much of the emphasis of the culture goes beyond what happens on the field. Todd and Furuto are driven by their shared Christian faith and strive to make their players good people, not just good players.
“We really push character and grit in our program, and regardless of the state championships, we want to turn out really good girls,” Todd said. “That’s what we take pride is really, state championships can be forgotten, but when these girls come back, and we had a lot come back to the state championship this year, when they come back and you see how well they’re doing in life and what kind of women they have turned into, that’s really what drives me and Kaleigh.”
Both believe that off-field focus truly paid off during the 2025 season.
Kevin Todd and Kaleigh Todd Furuto’s shared softball journey has taken many forms over the years, but their latest chapter as Thompson softball’s co-head coaches gave them an unforgettable memory with their first shared state title. (File)
While the Warriors entered the season as one of the favorites to return to Oxford, the coaches knew they had to go deeper than just their returning veterans, including a completely intact pitching staff.
Over the first half of the season though, Todd and Furuto saw the younger players grow up and take more prominent roles on and off the field. They both firmly believe that the growth from those players is what took them over the top.
“The younger kids grew up,” Furuto said. “They took it upon themselves and they were determined not to lose. They don’t handle losing very well, and so to see that and then to just take it upon themselves, dad talks about great teams are led by players and they truly did that.”
In addition to the players who stepped up as leaders, the coaching staff worked from the early days of offseason workouts to instill a resiliency in the players.
Furuto said they preach to their players that they just need to make little plays that lead to the offense snowballing rather than getting a home run or extra-base hit from each player.
“We play a game in practice all the time where we say, ‘You’re down by five, you’re down by four,’ and they always show up and put it together,” Furuto said. “We always say, ‘Just pass it back. I don’t need you to be a hero, I need you to be a teammate and pass it back.’”
Thompson found itself in plenty of adversity down the stretch where it had to use those lessons to save its season. The Warriors lost the first game of both regionals and the state tournament, leading to two-straight elimination games in Albertville and six-straight in Oxford.
However, Thompson had experience coming back from four losses in the regular season and winning the next game. Todd and Furuto stressed that in the playoffs to help the team bounce back.
“We lost six games this year but we never lost back-to-back games, so that’s kind of what we talked about is that we’ve been here before where we’ll lose a game then we’ll run off nine, 11 wins, whatever it was throughout the season, so we just kind of remind them of that, just take it one game at a time, and we still believed we had the better team,” Todd said. “That was there, we really did, and what they did was amazing though, and like I said after the thing, they were a special bunch who refused to lose that second game.”
The six-straight elimination wins secured a special milestone for Todd and Furuto–their first state championship as co-head coaches.
While the state championship was by no means the end of their shared journey as coaches, it did put everything in perspective for Todd. The two have come a long way from Furuto’s first softball game as a preschooler to the moment Todd handed her her first trophy as a head coach.
In his eyes, he wouldn’t have it any other way than to do what he loves with his daughter by his side, making memories that will last a lifetime.
“As a father, it’s really been a blessing to me having her have the same passion as I do,” Todd said. “Like [Kaleigh] said, we’ve been sharing this sport since she was four years old, and for me to see her where she is now and to experience the ups and downs, but especially the two state championships winning with her by my side, it’s something that I’ll cherish forever.”
