Who’s the coach at Jackson County now? How’d you like coach Wakefield? I grew up in Smith County.
Coach King has been at JC for ever. Football and baseball. He did great things for the Baseball program and put several district flags on the back of the dugout. He stepped down several years ago amid some grumblings with a few forceful parents that didn't appreciate him. He finally came back to baseball, coaching the Middle School, and refuses to come back to the High School. Don't blame him but would love to have him back.
Wakefield came in for two years and was really good. Young, energetic, demanding, and disciplined. But, he would not be a long term solution as he had aspirations to progress up to the college ranks. He had a chance to go to Wilson Central as an assistant while waiting on the HC job at the new Wilson West. Lebanon came open and he took that last year, also finding what probably will become his wife. His father I think still coaches at Friendship, so he has some upbringing into coaching. He will do a great job at Lebanon. He is also good in that he continues to work with some former JC players he coached that are in the JUCO ranks currently.
Our current coach (Juan something) in in his 3rd year now. JC does not have the support and enthusiasm now, and definitely not the success, it had under King and Wakefield. Juan came from Macon County as an assistant I think, and also was an assistant at Cumberland University in Lebanon at one point. He's just not good.
Wakefield left after my sons 8th grade year. He was really looking forward to playing for him. He and Juan generally do not gel well, and he has treated him differently than other players from his arrival. Ironically, my son is one of those quiet players that works, and does what is asked of him, and is never any trouble, so we've never figured out the disconnect. He's kind of a coaches perfect player. And literally, one of the best on the squad. He came out of middle school ball batting .650, and in his sophomore year last year, was the only player on the team without an error (32 clean fielded plays in LF), and still got platooned with 2 freshmen that couldn't stop a ball without literally laying on the ground in front of it. And it was a team that made many errors every game. He was playing with some serious back injuries from the football weight room, but he still went about his business and ran down balls in left field. And defensive player of the year went to a player coach drooled over that had well over a dozen errors. The same player struck out 22 consecutive times before getting his first hit, yet won the batting title.
Sorry, I get a little wound up if I get off on Coach Juan. He hasn't impressed me enough after 3 years to even remember his last name. He has embarrassed JC Baseball, a once proud and prosperous program with excellent HS facilities. Judge Cassity (ret.) pumped a lot of money into the program after his son died during his senior year, and built pretty much everything we have, and has always been in the dugout during home games keeping the books. He was noticeably absent at last nights home opener. Something I've never witnessed in our 6 years.
We opened with a loss to Macon County last night. We gave the game away in the first inning and shut them down the rest of the game. Didn't look bad overall though. We may have some hope this year even in the absence of pitching.
Anyhoo...Wakefield is great. Tough. He will challenge his players to their potential. And I like that. Any program that gets him will be happy. I'm curious if we will ever see him make the college jump.
