Stephanie Pinto

Class of 2026

By a certain point, Les Stuedeman had assumed a role of recruiting advisor. She had established a remarkable softball program at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, but Stephanie Pinto, whom she coached in travel softball, was a big-time talent at Grissom High. Major colleges were wooing her heavily. The major SEC programs all wanted Pinto, and Stuedeman was graciously helping navigate the process.

Finally, an epiphany. “What do I want my day-to-day life to be like? How often do I want to see my family?” Pinto mused. “What kind of education do I want? family? You know, what? What kind of education do I want? I was like, I want to be home. My family’s here. I can say I play Division I and be on a  team that doesn’t win anything, or I can play at UAH and win something.”

So, Pinto asked Stuedeman if she could sign with UAH. Like being asked if you’d like the keys to this new BMW.  “I sat in Les' office and handed her a letter saying I had made my decision to play for UAH and I explained all the reasons why,” Pinto recalls. “Yes, I actually sat there in her office, a few feet away from her, and made her read a letter because I knew I would be too emotional to say everything I wanted to say out loud because of our history.”

All that happened over the next four years was the emergence of the school’s most decorated softball player as the Chargers won two Gulf South Conference championships and earned four consecutive NCAA tournaments.

The Pinto resume:

Three-time NFCA All-American, three-time All-South Region, three-time GSC East Division Player of the Year.

Four-time All-GSC

GSC Player of the Decade for 2001-10

GSC Hall of Fame inductee in 2017, UAH Hall of Fame inductee in 2022

2006 GSC Commissioner’s Trophy Award winner

And now, in her first season of eligibility, the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame.

Stephanie Pinto Boster traded a softball uniform for that of City of Huntsville firefighter 15 years ago. She and husband Chris Boster, also a firefighter, have two daughters, three-year-old Ryker and one-year-old Rylee. It seemed likely that Stephanie was going to remain in athletics, looking to coach and teach after graduation from UAH. But “I always had this interest in EMS and medicine,” she says. Her mother Sheri worked in the emergency room at Huntsville Hospital and said, “I really like the firefighters that come in here. They just seem like good people. Have you ever thought about that?” Naturally, she got some encouragement from Stuedeman on the eve of firefighter training. “You survived me,” Les said, “so you can survive this.”

Sheri and Mike Pinto raised four daughters (Sarina, Brandi and Megan along with Stephanie) and countless summer nights were spent at McGucken Park, first with co-ed T-ball, then into softball. Stephanie then dove into softball at Grissom  (Fellow 2026 Hall of Fame inductee Whitney Smith Boggus was a teammate) and travel ball, with Stuedeman putting together an elite team.

Pinto became the starting catcher at Grissom as a ninth-grader in 2000, on a veteran team that had lost in the state finals to Thompson the previous season. “Before the season started, I just wanted to make JV,” she said then. Instead, she batted .395 with six homers for the varsity and was named, as a freshman, the Super All-Metro Player of the Year.

The Tigers won 51 games that season, went undefeated in postseason play and won Grissom’s first state softball championship. And, now, imagine this:

You’re the ninth-grader, the kid in the mix, and it’s a state tournament rematch with Thompson. And it’s a 1-0 deficit in a nail-biting pitcher’s duel, two outs in the fourth. For all the marvelous events, this is it. “It’s gonna sound like the moment every young athlete dreams of,” she says. It’s a fastball, a little bit on the inside half of the plate. Pinto swings, the ball disappears over the left field fence, and the game-winning runs score.

“They were runner-up the year before, and I was just an innocent freshman,” she says. “I was just doing my thing, trying to be a good teammate. That happening, the excitement for that team, the bonding. Those girls were three years older and the friendship I had with them, that was such a highlight of my career.”

-- Mark McCarter