Marble Falls grad, Texas track athlete accepts coaching position at Dripping Springs
JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF
DRIPPING SPRINGS — Call it a trade.
Months after Dripping Springs graduate Tony Salazar was hired as the defensive coordinator for the Marble Falls High School football team, Dripping Springs athletic director Howard Ballard hired Marble Falls High School graduate Ashley Laughlin to join the Lady Tigers coaching staff.
Laughlin’s hire was approved by the board of trustees June 24.
Laughlin will coach junior varsity basketball and hurdlers, pole vaulters and sprinters in track, what she calls her speciality. She graduated from Marble Falls in 2004 and earned a bachelor’s degree in 2008 from the University of Texas, where she was a pole vaulter for the Lady Longhorns track team.
“She had all the positives that we were searching for in a candidate to fill what we considered as two very crucial positions in basketball and track,” Ballard said. “We believe she will solidify both our girls basketball and track staffs. Her experiences as a coach in basketball and her background as a top level competitor in track only made our choice easier.”
Laughlin earned her master’s degree from the University of Louisiana-Monroe and joined the Brownwood High School coaching staff, working for former athletic director Bob Shipley. The two crossed paths numerous times when Shipley was the athletic director at Burnet High School in the early 2000s.
“It took a lot to leave Brownwood,” she said. “Dripping Springs is very special. It’s an opportunity to get closer to family. I always said I’d end up in the Hill Country. I’d drive through Dripping Springs and think, ‘This would be a great place to work.’ It’s a small town with a big city close by.”
Ballard said he contacted Shipley, now a football analyst for the Texas football staff, to learn more about Laughlin.
It also helped that former Marble Falls Middle School coach Millie Hogg, now a coach at Dripping Springs Middle School, endorsed Laughlin, Ballard added.
“It was imperative that we seek her out and offer the job to coach Laughlin,” he said.
Dripping Springs Middle School competes in District 25-4A along with Marble Falls Middle School.
jfierro@thepicayune.com