Sports helped Hough family get through tough times (+ video)

Sports have always played a large role in Stacey Hough’s life. A three-sport athlete in high school, Hough had established a career as a sports reporter and radio personality on ESPN’s The Zone, turning his passion into his life’s work.

When his first wife, Denise, died due to complications of childbirth in 2005, Hough was left with with two young children. His focus on athletics helped him cut a path through the darkness.

That path has led daughter Naja, 16 and a Ridge View junior, to a softball scholarship at Columbia College.

“She was probably always going to be athletic, and she probably would have always been a daddy’s girl. But losing her mother made it more important for both of us,” said Hough, who also does color commentary for S.C. High School League state championship events through PlayOn Sports. “Sports was a godsend at that time. For a young father with two kids on his own and no idea how he was going to make it, sports gave life some order.”

Denise Hough had her daughter enrolled in ballet classes and tennis lessons. But alone with Naja, then in first-grade, and newborn son Staden, dance classes fell by the wayside. But Naja remained active in sports with help from family and friends.

“She was doing dance, and soccer, and cheerleading, and just anything. Denise wanted to introduce her to a lot of different things, just to see what Naja liked, and Denise would have supported her whatever she chose,” said Dalphine Humphrey, Naja’s aunt.

“I remember starting softball with my dad, and I liked it not just because I was good at it, or because he was doing it with me,” said Naja. “Softball was my time to be with other girls and talk about girly things. At home, it was me, my dad and brother, all the time, so it was fun to be with girls on the team.”

There is a lot more girl-power in their home now. Hough remarried and Jenarda McDowell-Hough and her two daughters – both cheerleaders – joined the family.

Still, Naja said, she cannot imagine her life without softball and her teammates.

Though Naja looks like her mother, she got her father’s athleticism and gregarious personality, and she was perfect for team sports.

The day Naja tried out for the Ridge View varsity softball team as a seventh-grader was one of the most difficult and proud days for the Houghs.

“Her aunt had dropped her off at the high school; I was about to go on the radio and she called me crying. She was at the top of the hill, she was scared to go down to the field for tryouts,” Stacey Hough said. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do, telling my daughter that I could not come help her. I just had to talk her down that hill, and that was all I could do.”

Hough had been on the receiving end of plenty of pep talks, but none had prepared him for that moment.

Naja said her father did exactly what she needed in that moment.

“I was just so terrified. He didn’t tell me I had to go down there, and from then on, my career has always been my choice,” Naja said.

Having the benefit of her dad’s knowledge has always been a bonus.

“I like talking to my dad about my games; he does give good advice,” Naja said. “It’s like having an extra coach, who knows me better than anybody.”

Car rides home from games and practices are as full of commentary as Naja will allow from her dad. Naja batted .364 with 17 runs batted in, 24 hits and a team-leading 11 stolen bases for the Blazers this season and posted a .927 fielding average with 83 putouts as catcher and shortstop.

“I want my dad to give me feedback, but we always start with something good, and end with something good,” Naja said. “He gives good constructive criticism, but then I usually say, ‘Now, let’s end it with something positive.’ ”

Mike Rawl, Lugoff-Elgin coach and coach of Naja’s travel softball squad, the Palmetto Fusion, said Naja has plenty of positives.

“Because I had seen her athleticism, when she first started playing for me, I put her at shortstop, even though I knew that was not her position for the high school team. She picked up the position really well, because she’s just a very talented and coachable girl,” Rawl said.

And she is uncommonly knowledgeable about the sport.

“Most girls 16 or 17 years old don’t understand a lot of the terminology that she does, about all sports, but even just about softball,” Rawl said. “She’ll make comments about things we saw on Sportscenter and jump into a conversation that maybe another adult guy and I are having. Not too many young ladies can do that.”

Naja said she enjoys being able to hold her own in a conversation about sports, no matter who she is talking to, “but I love being able to about it with my dad the most.”

This story was originally published May 5, 2015 at 6:36 PM with the headline "Sports helped Hough family get through tough times (+ video)."