There’s not too many things Coach Todd Mayfield hasn’t seen on the athletic field and that’s not just limited to softball, either.

Over the last four decades, he’s been teaching athletes in baseball, softball and basketball how to improve their skills and that’s been so long now, it goes back to when:

• Ronald Reagan was President of the United States,
• Prince, Madonna and Whitney Houston were huge on the music charts
• flicks such as Back to the Future, Rambo II, Rocky IV, The Color Purple and The Breakfast Club were drawing folks out to the movie theaters!

Over those 40 years, Coach Mayfield has worked in many of the premier club orgs in the nation including stints with the East Cobb Bullets and now the fast-growing Lady Dukes program.

Heading into the 2025-26 season, Todd manages the second year 16U team stocked with talent from the 2026 and ’27 classes and isn’t afraid to field his team in intensive competition facing the best teams in the U.S.

The Lady Dukes schedule heading into this Fall and beyond will take hia Lady Dukes Southeast 16U squad to play in events around the country in states such as Florida, Colorado, Kansas, Georgia, and ending with the PGF Nationals next Summer in Huntington Beach, California.

Coach Todd explains:

“We do this to allow our players to face some of the best teams nationwide to improve their skills and experiences while allowing them to play in top college showcases, competitive tournaments and well followed nationals to get exposure to top college coaches and their programs.”

Today, the longtime softball leader lives about an hour and a half north of Atlanta in a small town of about 10,000 called Toccoa.

Line Drive Executive Editor Brentt Eads recently caught up with Coach Mayfield to learn more about how he first caught the softball coaching bug, why he’s still in it today and what he loves about the game so much to continue to be such a key influencer in it.

This is Part 1 of 2… next week, we’ll look more closely at the team and focus on the talented players he’s assembled.

Here’s what Todd had to say about his journey getting to this point…

*****

Line Drive Softball: Let’s go back a few decades… how did you first get into softball and then into travel ball?
Todd Mayfield: I was blessed to enter into the travel ball world when my son, Dionte, who is now 30, got into travel ball baseball with the East Cobb Astros out of Marietta, Ga., I got into softball when my daughter Raina played Little League Softball and I coached her when she started at age 8.

When she turned 13, Raina got into competitive travel ball and we all fell in love with the fast pace of the game at that level. She got into the Bullets organization for a decade and would later play at Alabama A&M.

I got the opportunity to be in softball all this time but I also was busy in AAU basketball with Dionte and then in baseball with him and his brother along with rec football and travel football so I’ve been busy with all my kids!

LDM: How did you put together this Lady Dukes team?
TM: We just added our last player and now have 17 kids. Previously, we had our ’04 kids graduate and go to college, so we made the decision to drop down and start from scratch. It’s been all word of mouth and was a rough year of coaching—we didn’t win many games—but we learned it’s about teaching the game versus just focusing solely on winning so we’re looking to do it all to help the kids in every way needed.

After the Summer season was over, we had a tryout and assembled the rest of the team through word of mouth as we had players and parents calling us.

We’re building a brand and excited to be putting out a great product while developing and training the girls. They see how we’re doing that, that it’s a great product and our name and reputations is still out there!

LDM: It’s great to see you back on the fields helping kids live their dreams but it hasn’t been all easy, especially with your health issues… tell us about what you’ve overcome in the last few years.
TM: I was diagnosed with Neuroendocrine (NET) tumors, which start in neuroendocrine cells, usually in the GI tract, lungs or pancreas. I had Stage 4 cancer and eventually had two tumors removed but am now 100 percent.

However, I still wasn’t myself for a while and this year was my first one back but we dud made it to the Triple Crown Nationals.

LDM: Those health issues sound scary… it’s great that you have so much support from your family to your friends and those in the softball world that love and respect you…
TM:  Yes, it all really started about two years ago around Christmas. I was having pain in my stomach area, and a CAT scan revealed a mass.

My doctors said at the time that they couldn’t do surgery because of my intestines and had to wait two weeks before assembling a surgery team. They did the operation the week before Christmas of 2022 and by February of 2023 I was good to go.

I have a tattoo on my arm that says: “I’m still standing” and, although I’ve been down for a minute, I’m back and doing what I love.

It’s great for me too in that my wife, Mechelle, and I have been married 32 years and she’s my rock. Mechelle helps and motivates me, she tells me when I’m too harsh and the times when I’m too nice!

LDM: If there is one thing you would say that separates you and your coaching style from other club programs, what would it be?
TM: A lot of people talk about it, but we are truly a family. We are going to make it work and family first. Our girls get along and love each other. They want to stay in the same hotel, eat together and eat together. They even get upset if they are not together and that’s the type of unity we love to have

We teach our players to put God put first and to love their families right there as well and then it’s “LTD” (Living the Dream) every day on this side of Earth.

Before and after everything we do, we’re going to pray and love each other; we are not going to swear but, on the other side, treat each other with respect.

The reward of all this is, I’ve found, that when they get married our former players invite us to their weddings. It’s not about the wins or losses, then; it’s that after they leave they feel like a part of your extended family. That’s what drives me to keep doing what I’m doing!

LDM: It sounds like you’re still having fun! What are you learning now in today’s game?
TM: (Laughs). One story that comes to mind is a pick play that happened at PGF Nationals when we were playing the A’s – Mercado team. We were in a game and something happened and I yelled good-naturedly to the opposing coach:

“Wow, that’s great… I’m going to use that!”

He responded:

“You can have it!” and we laughed the rest of the game and helped each other in other ways play to our best.

I love that, that we can help others along the way and, as I told him, I’ll use next summer what I learned from him this summer!

LDM: How much longer do you see yourself doing this?
TM: I see myself coaching for about another two years and then I’ll look for a retirement plan. God let me live this long, now I want to spend a couple years totally committed to Michelle after I’ve been so busy for years doing nine months of softball every year!

— Brentt Eads/Line Drive Softball