When the Whitehall softball team takes the field next season, the third-base coaching box will be without the familiar presence of Alexis Berg-Townsend.

After a coaching career than spanned 10 years, Berg-Townsend submitted her resignation last week. She won 136 games over that decade and guided the Zephyrs to a District XI championship in 2009.

She also led the Zephyrs to an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Skyline Division championship in 2016, culminating in a district finals appearance.

She has twice been named coach of the year by an area publication and set a standard of excellence that will keep the program on solid footing heading into the future.

Berg-Townsend said that while coaching was something she valued, especially the relationships she was able to forge over those 10 years, her family would now take precedence.

Her son was starting to get involved in his own activities that she was beginning to miss because of her coaching commitment, and that was the driving force behind her decision.

During her tenure, Berg-Townsend prepared her teams to play within the highly competitive Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, as well as the former Lehigh Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference, where Parkland was often a source of heartbreak.

Over that time, she endured some emotional scars and even a physical one. She was struck with a bat in 2014 while relaying pitches in the dugout, suffering a concussion that sidelined her for a month.

The time away from the game was one of the toughest things she had to deal with as a coach, and made her appreciate the time she spent with her players.

In fact, spending time with those players has created a strong bond with memories she’ll long cherish.

“It’s the relationship with my players that I’ll really miss,” said Berg-Townsend. “My job as a coach at Whitehall was more than on the field.”

That certainly rang true by the outpouring of messages she received from her former players once they learned of the news.

Berg-Townsend said she would often get texts, or Facebook messages from former players who wanted to stop by for a visit or just share something in their lives.

“It’s been an ongoing relationship over 10 years with players staying in touch with me in some manner,” said Berg-Townsend.

She expects those relationships to continue as they move forward in their lives. Over a dozen of her former players went on to play collegiate softball, and alumni events have always garnered a strong showing.

While she wasn’t afraid to let her players know that they weren’t playing up to their potential, she also made sure to instill a sense of fun.

On a rain-soaked afternoon against Northampton in 2015, a chair outside the dugout had become saturated, prompting the game of “Odds” that had become popular with the team that season.

Berg-Townsend lost that particular round of “Odds” and found herself sitting squarely in that puddle much to the delight of her team. Berg-Townsend said that it was always important to balance fun and fundamentals.

She said that it was important to gain that respect from everyone in the role as a coach.

“You have a job, and you have responsibilities within that job to do your absolute best,” said Berg-Townsend. “That was one of the strong points the last 10 years.”