The Heart Behind The Hustle; Addison Phillips Leaves Lasting Impact At Clarksville
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by Janice Penix
For some athletes, ability comes naturally. Addison Phillips is one of those athletes.
But her success wasn’t just the result of her natural talents, it was the culmination of the hours of hard work she put in, committing to doing her very best whenever she stepped on the field or court.
“Phillips was a special kid, and I had the opportunity to coach her in both softball and volleyball,” Wes Davis, Clarksville High School volleyball coach, said. “One thing that always stood out about her was the extra effort she put in outside of school to get better. Softball may have been her first love, but any time I had the gym open, she found a way to be there.”
A 2026 Clarksville graduate, Phillips was an accomplished athlete in both softball and volleyball for the Lady Panthers.
She finished her career with all-state, all-region and all-conference honors in both sports and was the first Clarksville volleyball player selected for the all-star game. She earned the Lady Panthers’ most outstanding player and defensive player of the year awards for the 2026 softball season and was named the outstanding defensive player for the 2025 volleyball season.
Her First Love
Echoing her coach’s sentiments, Phillips said softball has always been her favorite sport.
“I’ve always been interested in sports, starting at a young age,” Phillips said. “My dad really influenced me to give 110%, and I thought the best way to do that was through sports. Plus it was just fun.”
She started with T-ball in the Johnson County Girls Club (JCGC), and also played basketball and soccer when she was young. Although she picked up most of the activities easily, Phillips said she didn’t think of herself as an athlete back then.
“It didn’t dawn on me that I was actually decent at it until I was probably 12 years old,” she said. “I was just there to have fun and to play what I enjoyed. And I absolutely enjoyed softball the most. Softball’s always been my ride-or-die.”
Phillips settled into the shortstop position on the softball field, a position she grew to excel at playing.
“You get most of the balls, and you’re the captain of the infield,” she said. “I enjoy that, because it makes me feel like I’m showing others how to play the game, and giving my love to them and hoping that they agree with the love of the game.”
She said she put in extra time practicing in order to develop as a player.
“It’s definitely been a lot of effort, a lot of work,” Phillips said. “From ages eight to 12 or 14, I was hitting all the time and doing all extra practices. Then on top of that, I had travel ball practice and JCGC practice, and all this other kind of stuff, so I feel like it sped up through those years.”
When she started playing for the Clarksville High School team, Phillips continued her extra practice, often heading to the batting cages on weekends or school breaks with her friends and her younger sister, Avery.
“My hitting is always a struggle point for me because I get my confidence built up, and then I’ll have one bad game where my batting average isn’t what I want it to be,” she said. “So I’ll be like, ‘Man, I need to I need to go ahead.’ So I’ll go ahead and it’ll bring my confidence back. Because seeing the balls do what you want them to do in a game, it helps your confidence.”
Nicole Possage, Clarksville High School softball coach, said Phillips set the tone for the rest of the team when she stepped to the plate.
“Addison has carried the responsibility of being our leadoff hitter throughout her career,” Possage said. “Simply put, if she goes, we go. When Addison gets a hit to start things off, the rest of the team settles in at the plate and plays with confidence. The same confidence carried over defensively with her leadership in the field.”
Phillips said she didn’t start out confident as a Lady Panther.
“My freshman year was very nerve-racking,” she said. “I was very intimidated. I was able to start varsity as a freshman, which is extremely hard to do, and it was intimidating because all the older girls, who were three or four years older than me, they’d been playing for a lot longer. I just felt like I really had to live up to the expectations and do all the right kind of stuff.”
She said Possage was instrumental in guiding her, especially through her early high school seasons.
“Coach Possage helped me through that,” Phillips said. “She said, ‘Listen, you’ve got this. You can compete with anybody else out there. You’ve just got to instill confidence in yourself.’ And I was like, ‘OK, well, let’s go.’ I think I played pretty good my freshman year and sophomore year.”
Last year, during her junior season, the Lady Panther roster primarily consisted of underclassmen.
“Last year, we lost several people, and we were really young,” Phillips said. “I felt like it was kind of my job to tell them, ‘No matter the score of the game, I just want you to play like you know how to play. Let’s give it our all, and if you have any questions at all, come to me, I’ll let you know. We can call time in the field. I will tell you, I will help you out any way you need.’ It was more or less just a year of, let’s see what we can do, as opposed to, let’s win every game.”
Phillips began to shine as a leader during that season.
“I just wanted their best effort on the field and in hitting, and I didn’t really care what the scoreboard looked like,” she said. “I just wanted to see how the young girls were able to connect with us, and I really think that made a big difference. A lot of us got along very well, and then this year, our relationships from last year increased. We brought in a couple more freshmen, and we got them in the mix, and it was a great, great environment.”
The Lady Panthers finished the 2026 season with a 9-12 record and qualified for the regional tournament.
“Even though it might not be the best record around, it’s definitely improved from last year,” Phillips said. “And all around, it just was amazing to see those girls put in that hard work. I feel like I was able to show them what softball can mean other than just a sport. It means friendships and having a good time. You’ve got to remember that you’re more than the sport itself.”
Phillips finished her career at CHS with 141 hits, 87 RBIs, and nine home runs, including one grand slam. She stole 79 bases and in 335 career at-bats, she only had 24 strikeouts.
“One of the most impressive things about watching Addison hit is that there truly is not a pitch she cannot hit,” Possage said. “She consistently puts the ball in play and forces defenses to make plays to get her out. On the bases, she is aggressive, intelligent and always ready to take advantage of even the smallest mistake by the defense.”
Possage also said Phillips was a defensive standout.
“For the past four seasons, Addison Phillips has been a lockdown defender at shortstop,” Possage said. “Time and time again, she has made plays that are far from routine. The kind of plays that make you stop as a coach and think, ‘Thank goodness she’s on our team.’”
A New Love
When Phillips was in middle school, she decided to pick up a new sport: volleyball.
“I had not a clue about volleyball, no idea about any of it,” she said. “It was more or less, me and my friends were sitting in a class, and they were like, ‘Hey, do you want to play volleyball?’ And I’m like, ‘What’s volleyball? Yeah, sure, let’s give it a shot.’ It sounded fun, so I did it.”
Unlike softball, Phillips said she didn’t take to volleyball right away.
“It was OK, but it was definitely not softball,” she said. “It was a very big learning curve. I was one of the better ones because I could throw a softball, and in seventh grade, really all you had to be able to do is serve a ball. I had the upper body strength to get the ball far enough across the net, so I could do it, but honestly I thought it was kind of boring. I was used to the ‘go, go, go’ of softball, and I didn’t know the play would increase, that as you got older, it would be even faster than softball.”
Although she had to learn the sport, Phillips said she still enjoyed the process.
“It was a stress reliever,” she said. “Because in softball, I always prided myself in being one of the better ones out there. Then volleyball was like, I can be one of the better ones out there if I wanted to be, but more or less I could just have fun. I didn’t feel as much pressure.”
However, Phillips said the fun didn’t take away the desire she had to perfect her skills.
“Was I still hard on myself? Yes,” she said. “That’s a given in anything that I do. I always tell myself that I should be better, even when sometimes it’s not possible.”
Phillips was an outside hitter on the volleyball team until her senior year, when Davis needed her to fill a different role.
“Early in her career, she played outside hitter for us, but this year we moved her to libero, a position that does not always get the same recognition as a front-row hitter,” Davis said. “Her response said everything about who she is as a player and teammate: ‘I’ll do what’s best for the team, coach. I just want to win.’”
Like her softball team, Phillips said the CHS volleyball team members shared a strong bond.
“The team as a whole was close, especially the seniors,” she said. “There was a very strong connection on the floor, which you need in volleyball. You need a strong connection because without one person, another person can’t do their job. So you’ve really got to trust the other person to do their job and get it done.”
Davis said Phillips set a good example for her fellow players.
“She was always kind to her teammates,” he said. “But she was also a fierce competitor on the court. She took losses personally because she cared so much about winning and about her team. I always enjoyed talking with Addie because she had such a good perspective on things. She had a way of seeing situations from a bird’s-eye view, even when things didn’t always go in her favor.”
The 2025 Lady Panthers had one of their most successful seasons ever, qualifying for the state volleyball tournament for the first time in over 20 years. At the conclusion of the season, Phillips was selected for the Arkansas Volleyball Coaches Association’s inaugural all-star game.
“I was extremely proud of her being selected for the ArVCA All-Star match this year,” Davis said. “To the best of my knowledge, she is our first volleyball player to earn that honor.”
Phillips said she enjoyed playing in the all-star game with some of the top athletes from across Arkansas.
“You’re used to seeing all those good players on the other side of the net, but this time I’m not going up against them,” she said. “And they were great people. They were all so welcoming and fun to be around and very knowledgeable at volleyball.”
New Horizons
Phillips graduated from CHS last month with distinguished honors. This fall, she will attend Hendrix College to continue her softball career as a Warrior.
“I’m excited about it, but I’m a little nervous too, a little skeptical,” she said. “I just feel like, it’s going to be the same thing as freshman year. I’m going to go in and be intimidated. But I think, over time, I will enjoy those girls just as much as I enjoyed my team at Clarksville.”
Davis said although Phillips is not playing volleyball in college, he is still proud to see her continue into the next level of athletics.
“I think she is going to be a great asset for the Hendrix Warriors, and I hope I get to catch one of her games,” he said.
Phillips is unsure what area she wants to study in college, but is considering health science, physical therapy or coaching.
She said being part of Clarksville Lady Panther athletics, and sports in general, has made a difference in her success in many areas of life.
“I think being a part of a team, it shows you how to work with people,” she said. “Sometimes you may not like who you work with, and sometimes you may love who you work with. It just teaches you how to balance those and to make yourself better, to make other people better by increasing or bettering those relationships.
“Sports can also teach you how to lose. In the real world, you’re not always going to win. Sometimes life throws curveballs at you and all the other kind of stuff and it teaches you how to deal with losses properly. Sports teaches you how to be a good person, and to care for one another. Because you have life outside of sports, and you need to know how to balance things. Your teammates aren’t just your teammates, they’re people. You need to check on them, make sure that they’re all good.”
While her teammates often feel like part of her family, Phillips has a strong family support system at home, including her parents, Devin and Sarah Phillips, her brother, Bryar. and, especially her little sister.
“Avery and me, we’re pretty close,” Phillips said. “We played travel ball together. She played up and was always the youngest one on the team, but it was awesome. I felt so nervous when she would go up to bat or do something, and then she’d do it, and I was ecstatic for her because I know how it would feel for someone to be excited for you.”
Avery Phillips attends Lamar High School, where she also plays softball, as well as basketball.
“I love supporting her,” Phillips said. “I try to go to as many of her basketball and softball games as I can. I tried to be a role model for her. I would mess up and be like, ‘Listen, don’t do what I did. Try this.’ And then to see her succeed is absolutely amazing. Sometimes she would come to the field with me, and it meant a lot to me because she was trying to be better and practicing to be better. It’s a lot of sister pride, but she is going to be good, too.”
Phillips’ coaches say she left a lasting impact on the field and the court at CHS.
“One of my greatest joys as a coach has been watching Addison grow as a leader,” Possage said. “This year, she took younger players under her wing and helped guide them through decision-making, hitting, and handling difficult moments with confidence. No matter the situation, she consistently encouraged her teammates and helped keep them focused. Through both her words and actions, Addison instilled confidence in those around her and helped this team believe that every game was within reach. At the end of the day, having Addison on your team always gave you a chance to win with her play defensively and at the plate.
“Addison has been the heart and soul of this team through her competitiveness, leadership, and love for the game. Over the past two years, she fully committed herself in the weight room, and that hard work truly showed this season. Addison will be missed by her play and by her leadership day in and day out. We cannot wait to watch her continue to grow as a person and athlete next year at Hendrix.”
Read this story and others in the June 10 issue of The Graphic, available online and at businesses throughout Franklin and Johnson counties. Subscribe or donate here to support more hometown journalism.
Addison Phillips (Photo courtesy Josie Wilkins)
–Photo courtesy Josie Wilkins
Addison Phillips fields a ball from the shortstop position during the Lady Panthers’ game against Dardanelle on April 7.
–Photo courtesy Shelley Freeman
Addison Phillips prepares to serve the ball at the Lady Panthers’ game at Atkins during her senior season.
–Photo courtesy Dawn Muldoon
