Last week, we broke the news of championship-winning club coach Brittany Lewis establishing a new club organization, Armor Elite Fastpitch.

Click HERE to read that article.

Today, we learned more about the organization and how it will make a huge impact in the club space.

Armor Elite Fastpitch—an emerging national-level travel club—has officially announced its formation, led by co-founding partners Brittany Lewis and Chad O’Neal of Georgia Impact along with Josh Lynch of the Atlanta Vipers who will head the program’s first team.s

The trio bring decades of experience, reputation and credibility to a club built on purpose, structure, and athlete-centered development. 

In 2024, Lewis’s Tennessee Mojo 16U won the PGF Nationals in Huntington Beach, Calif. and now has partnered with two other highly successful coaches.

“Chad O’Neal and I are co-founders,” Lewis told Line Drive Softball this weekend, “and Josh Lynch Vipers team is our first team. He’s also a board member.”

Today, Elite Fastpitch released a promo video introducing the club program to the fastpitch softball club world:

The creation of the Armor Elite’s lineup of teams has begun with Lynch’s Vipers and O’Neal’s teams being brought into the Armor Elite fold. The players and parents on those teams were informed over the weekend of the change.

And how will teams be created in the organization?

“We are looking to fill our premier teams in each age group first before adding others,” Lewis responded.

*****

The Origins of Armor Elite

Lewis talks about the genesis of creating what today has become Armor Elite.

“Something I’d been thinking about for a long time—there were other people involved in the discussions and the thinking. About a month and a half ago I was at a tournament, and I ran into Brittany. We just started talking and catching up a little bit, and she told me what she was thinking.”

“She said, ‘I’m going to leave.,” and I asked why—why did she want to leave? She wasn’t thinking about starting a new organization at that point. She was just going to go somewhere else, but she had been thinking, just like I had, about starting something but just never worked out.

“My momentum on that had really gotten ratcheted up and was moving quickly, but I wasn’t sure when or how.

“When I met with her that day and she told me what she’d been feeling, it was perfect timing. We started talking, and it made a lot of sense.”

*****

Investment in Kids

O’Neal stresses that the organization will grow methodically and will avoid the “build fast” mentality:

“We don’t have a specific goal,” he begins. “We don’t need a certain number of teams by a certain age. We want to grow it organically.”

“Ideally, we’d like 20 teams in each region,” Lynch continues, “with two teams in each age group—a Premier and a Regional. The Premier team takes care of the big national events, and the Regional teams develop.”  

He also addressed misconceptions about this being done for primarily financial reasons.:

“There’s a misconception that anybody who runs a club is making money,” he stresses. “After running Georgia Impact for two years at about 45 to 50 teams — nobody was making money.”

“You’ve got responsibilities and, at the end of the day, there’s no money.”  

He clarified why he continues to coach:

“My kid graduated in 2018. Ever since then, I’ve done this because I love it.”

“Whether people love us, hate us, or are somewhere in between, no parent who’s ever played for me—or for Brittany—can question the investment we’ve made in their kid.”  

*****

Culture & Chemistry Matter

Lynch, whose Georgia-based team anchors the launch, says the intent is crystal clear:

“We’re going to be quality over quantity and we’re not going to water this down. Armor Elite will only be carrying what we can develop the right way.”  

He emphasized that all three coaches bring full teams and full commitment:

“My whole team is coming and Chad’s team is coming. Eventually Brittany’s will too, once everything is lined up.”  

Lynch describes the timing as natural—almost inevitable:

“This whole thing feels like destiny…. I didn’t plan it. We’re in a good place right now and, as soon as this begins moving forward, it’s only going to build.”  

“Chad’s been in the game a long time and is very reputable. I might not agree with 100 percent of everything he does — that’s fine — but he’s solid and he’s proven.”

Lynch underscores how the recruiting landscape is shifting and how Armor Elite will face the changes.

“Recruiting has evolved,” he begins. “It’s different now. The world we live in – September 1 is going to be fuel for most of us.”

And it’s gotten personal, he reveals.

“I’ve lost sleep the past two years over recruiting because of how much it’s changed. I’m not an organization jumper. That’s not what this is. It’s about making sure the girls have somewhere to land as they age up.”  

“When you love the game, you talk to people from all over the country. You see what they do, how they do it.”

“I’m rare — I’ve got 13 girls from the state of Georgia.”

“We practice three hours on Wednesday and seven hours on Sunday. That’s ten hours a week together and that much practice time builds chemistry.”

“I’ve done this since my girls were tiny — culture and chemistry matter.”  

*****

Building & Evolving with Structure

O’Neal is blunt about expectations:

“We want the Premier teams built first, and then we’ll look outward from there.”

“Everybody says the same things—monthly Zoom calls, coaching plans… then they realize they don’t have as much time as they thought.”

“Very few clubs stay on top of it. Very few stay on task.”

“If you want to be good at it, you do those things no matter what. You have a list of things you do not deviate from—whether it’s three teams or 30.”  

With three accomplished coaches aligned on standards, culture, development and stability, Armor Elite enters the national landscape with a clear identity and a long-term plan—focused entirely on doing right by athletes, families, and the game.

*****

Armor Elite’s Team Roster Size

“We don’t want to be 100 teams,” O’Neal stresses. “We want to be 50 teams and want to have 20 teams in each region with two in each age group: a Premier and a Regional.

“The plan is for teams to take care of their berths. Take care of their national events with the top team in the age group. Then you have the more regional teams that develop.”

So how many and how soon?

“It really depends on the interest.”

And it’s not about getting rich, either, he says.

“Well, I can tell you, after running Georgia Impact for two years at about 45 to 50 teams, nobody was making money.”

“You’ve got other responsibilities. You’ve got to fund a Gold team. You’ve got to pay a couple of people. You’ve got to pay for Christmas parties and this and that.”

“At the end of the day, there’s no money.”

“At 60-plus teams, you start to get into some money. At 100-plus teams, you’re really in it. I’m not trying to suggest everybody running a club is getting rich, but our emphasis is not on getting to a number so we can get paid.”

*****

The Need for Growth & Stability

For him, Armor Elite is the solution:

“Now having Lewis and O’Neal,” Lynch says, “that helps me as a dad. This founding group helps the other girls whose parents trust us. I feel like I’m finally doing right by them with this move.”  

“Moving to a new organization lets us have the teams these girls need for growth and stability, so my kids have a place to go.”

Lynch also credits Brittany Lewis for her development pedigree:

“I’ve watched Brittany coach from afar because my second oldest played in that world. I saw her grow as a coach and get kids to the next level.”  

He summed it up simply:

“You’ve got three great coaches coming on board. That’s huge for me.”  

— Brentt Eads