By Josh Boutwell 

The Troy Messenger

Travel softball organization, 4Ever5 Sports, started with one team and now has multiple teams with more than 100 athletes. The Luverne-based program’s goal is to develop area softball players who can one do play at the college level. 

Launched by brothers Donta Hall and Ro Harris of Luverne, the athletic training organization specializes in multi-sport training. Hall was an All-State basketball player at Luverne High School and went on to become a star player at the University of Alabama. Hall then played in the NBA and currently plays overseas in Spain. 

“We built this organization to help student-athletes because at one time we were in a place where no one gave us a chance either,” Harris said. “So, we know that feeling.” 

Harris was a multi-sports standout, a basketball, baseball and football player at Luverne who went on to play college football at Faulkner University. The pair’s father, Donald Hall, was a longtime youth sports coach in the Luverne area, who unfortunately passed away. 

In 2016, the brothers started 4Ever5 Sports in honor of their father, who was called “5” by friends and former teammates for the number he wore in sports. He also had five sons. 

Harris has spent time as a high school assistant football, basketball, softball and baseball coach since 2009. He coached for former Alabama head coach Mike DuBose at Luverne High School and this past season he was an assistant boys’ basketball coach at Pike Liberal Arts School. 

In 2016, Harris began coaching youth fast pitch softball for the first time when the Luverne Parks and Rec Director asked him to take on the coaching duties of the “Doodle Bugs.” 

“I will never forget that team,” Harris said with a smile. “Some of those kids went on to play college softball. They still reach out to me to this day. So, that was special for me.”

From there, 4Ever5 Sports began an 18U travel ball team and has grown over the years to now include an 8U, 10U, two 12U, 16U and 18U teams. High school players from all over the state take part in 4Ever5 Sports with numerous athletes from Crenshaw, Pike, Coffee, Covington and Baldwin counties playing alongside athletes from as far away as Birmingham. Several high school players from area schools are on the team.

The travel ball program has previously practiced at the Troy SportsPlex but was given access to the old Goshen High School softball field, which was sitting vacant. 4Ever5 Sports now calls that field home.

“It was a blessing because it’s in the middle for everyone,” Harris said of calling Goshen home. 

Harris said 4Ever5 Sports is all about developing athletes so that they can have a shot at playing in college one day. 

“I talked to a college coach who told me that they start looking at girls when they’re eight years old,” he remembered. “We thought we need to be developing our players from eight up, so that they can develop and move up inside the organization and aren’t starting to try and develop in high school.” 

Harris called his fiancé, Shelby Spaziani the “backbone” of the organization. Spaziani, a New Jersey native, played college softball at Coppin State in Maryland. She’s also been an assistant coach at both Pike County schools and Pike Lib. 

“She gets the kids recruited and knows the ins and outs of recruitment,” Harris said of Spaziani. “She’s really what makes this thing go. She handles all the flyers, the recruitment, E-Mails, everything. She’s the backbone of this whole thing.” 

Along with being a high school assistant coach and training with 4Ever5 Sports, Harris owns his own landscaping business and is a supervisor at Rex Lumber in Troy.

“I get up at four in the morning and get off at 2 [p.m.] and cut a couple of yards and then come out to a ball-field every night,” Harris said. “We don’t make money off this. We’re probably one of the cheapest (travel ball) organizations. They pay $300 for their uniforms and $20 at a tournament and that’s it. We’re out here for the kids, not to make a living off it. We love these kids and they love us and I think that’s why it’s growing so fast. It’s all about developing these athletes and getting them to where they want to be.”