Ask any coach and they will tell you that their job is not easy.

It’s even harder when you are just coming out of college and taking over the coaching duties at a junior college program.

That is what has happened this year for Marion Military Institute first year softball assistant coach Brittany McGee.

McGee graduated from the University of West Alabama in the spring of 2009 and pitched for four years for the Tiger softball team and was hired in the summer of 2009 by MMI to act as the assistant coach and help with recruiting.

“She’s not just good with on the field stuff,” said MMI head coach Joe Guthrie. “Since she has been here, our recruiting has never been better. She has been a great hire.”

But following an emergency with Guthrie’s wife, Gianna, who was having heart complications while pregnant with the couple’s first child, McGee was forced to take on the role of head coach.

“I’m not that much older than these girls,” said McGee. “They are 18,19 and 20 and I am only 22. So it’s hard to have a boundary.”

Even though the team went 3-6 during the games that McGee took over, Guthrie said he was happy with the way she has filled in during his absence.

“It’s hard for anybody when they are 22 years old,” said Guthrie. “She had to take over for nine games in the middle of the season right before region play. We were doing pretty good, and she was able to keep that going.”

Upon having to take over, McGee said that she had to change her role and disposition with the players.

“You know you always have a good cop and bad cop,” said McGee. “Those two weeks I was trying to be both. To break them down and then build them up.”

While McGee may have been nervous about making the change, it was one that her players said that she made with ease.

“When she came in she kind of changed,” said Dianna Montero, a sophomore centerfielder for MMI. “She wasn’t so quiet anymore. She was Coach McGee. She was yelling at us when we made a play, she was honest with everything, and stayed on our toes.”

Once again McGee has had to take over for Guthrie while his wife waits for a heart transplant.

“I’ve been gone the last three days,” said Guthrie. “Thankfully I will only miss some practices and a camp we had in Demopolis. I will be back before the regional.”