Melissa, Texas, is a small town less than an hour north of Dallas and a straight shot up through McKinney, which is just seven miles south, on U.S. Highway 75.

With close to 25,000 residents, it has a positive and pristine small-town feel but the high school sports in the city is impressively Texas-sized huge.

Drive by Melissa High and you think it’s a small university; see the outside facilities—including the football stadium which holds 10,000 and was opened in 2023 on a budget of $35 million as well as the turf-covered baseball and softball field—and you’d swear this is at minimum a large-scale NAIA or Div. 2 or 3 academic institution.

And as big-time as anything in the Lone Star State is the impressive success of the Cardinals’ softball program led by Head Coach Cassie Crabtree, who Line Drive Softball is announcing today as the National High School Coach of the Year.

Cassie is a positive and friendly figure who played softball at Southern Arkansas Univ. where she was a three-time 1^st Team All-Conference pitcher and utility player.

Having the benefit of watching up close her Univ. of Texas-bound senior daughter Caigan, a 5-foot-11 shortstop, who will play in the PGF All-American game next week, Coach Crabtree has led Melissa High to back-to-back state championships.

In early June, the Cardinals softball team topped a strong Barbers Hill squad in the Texas Class 5A Div. 1 title game to finish the season at 38-1 and seal the team not only being No. 1 in the country but also earn Coach Cassie the title of Line Drive Softball National High School Coach of the Year.

Here is Part 1 of 3 cut from our recent interview with Coach Cassie and her daughter Caigan on the turf of the Melissa Cardinals’ home field…