Makeup of talented coaches

By By Todd Thompson, Sports Editor
I spent much of last week following Hartselle’s impressive run in the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s state softball tournament on the internet with plenty of text messaging thrown in for good measure.
The Lady Tigers’ runnerup finish was certainly a shock to many, but not everyone.
But during Hartselle’s impressive run through the loser’s bracket, I must admit to doing a bit of scoreboard watching in the Class 1A and 3A tournaments as well.
Actually, I was following the play of Lynn High School in Class 1A and Carbon Hill in Class 3A with a vested interest.
Both teams are coached by former athletes who I had the privilege of covering during the course of my 20-year career at four different newspapers.
Lynn head coach Philip Smith an infielder/pitcher for the Bears in the early 90s when Lynn reached the state finals in baseball.
Carbon Hill head coach Wade Tittle played basketball for the Bulldogs around the same time.
Now both have gone on to successful coaching careers.
They aren’t alone, either.
Staffs across the state at high schools and colleges have plenty of coaches who I watched compete each week.
David Langston was a successful baseball player at Curry High School and now he is the head coach at Northwest-Shoals Community College.
Heath Burns, a tremendous middle infielder, now coaches basketball at Dora High School.
Justin Hogan, a reserve on Lynn’s baseball team that reached the finals, is now an assistant football coach at Winston County.
There are plenty of more, too. In fact, there are probably more than 30 players who I watched play on the high school or collegiate level who are now cutting their teeth in coaching.
Some are at big schools like Homewood, Mountain Brook or Prattville, while many are at smaller schools across the state.
There is a common thread to all those players now coaching: they seemed to have a genuine love for the competition.
And that has made them successful in the coaching field. Great athletes don’t always make great coaches. But great coaches do love the game.
Sports editor Todd Thompson can be reached at 773-6566 or by email at todd.thompson@hartselleenquirer.com