After enduring its first season without making the playoffs since 2016, the Columbia Academy baseball program has hired its third head coach in as many years.
Keith Stanley, who has served as an assistant since 2015, said it was a dream come true to take over the program following the dismissal of Eric Johnson. Stanley said it’s going to be special to guide the current group because when he first arrived the upcoming seniors were still in middle school and he’d like to be the one to lead them to the promise land.
“To guide them out of high school is a perfect fit. I’m pretty fired up and really anxious to get stuff going,” he said.
Stanley said that he’s had his eye on a head coaching position for a couple of years and that he’s felt ready for the new challenge. He added that he’s very thankful that Athletic Director Randy Butler and Headmaster Angie Burkett are giving him the opportunity to do it at the school that has become his home the past few years.
Stanley is a Forrest County AHS, Pearl River Community College and Southern Miss graduate and served as director of baseball operations at Pearl River. He began as an assistant at CA while he was at USM.
Stanley said his first order of business is to get everybody back on the same page within the program because they have grown apart a little bit in the past couple of years.
“Two or three years ago, these guys were inseparable. They would go eat, go hang out and cheer for one another. The main focus from day one is really to get the cohesion back,” he said. “I want to get everyone to have one goal in mind, whether it’s a state championship — we’ll start small with district championships and such — but the biggest thing is being a team again.”
Stanley said he’s going to try to use team fundraisers, gatherings at players’ and coaches’ houses and general team bonding activities to build the foundation of the program.
Graham Roberts, who serves as offensive coordinator for the Cougars football team, will join Stanley on the staff, but Stanley said he’s looking to bring in more help, specifically a pitching coach.
“We need to get a pitching guy in here to get everyone on the same page. What we’re going to do is pound the zone and throw strikes. I don’t care if it’s 98 (miles per hour) or 72. If we’re throwing strikes, it’s going to give us a chance to win. That’s what I want, and it’s something we really haven’t done well.”
Stanley noted that if you look at the teams competing for state championships this year that every one of them has three to four pitchers who throw strikes consistently.
Stanley doesn’t anticipate shaking things up strategically, but he wants the biggest change to be the effort players give for seven innings.
“I’m not going to sit here and say we’re not going to bunt time and again or bang some balls in the gap, but my main focus is just to play hard. I haven’t seen this baseball program actually play hard since the state championship year (2017),” he said. “Play hard, practice hard and do everything at a fast and more competitive pace is what I’m going to push from the get go.”
Stanley said there will be no recruiting under him because he said he knows CA already has the requisite talent in place to win.
“We don’t have to reach out to get people on board with us,” he said. “Now if they reach out to us, that’s a different story. I’m not going to not welcome anybody in that wants to be a part of our family.”
The Cougars new identity, Stanley says, will be a bunch of “gritty, competitive dirt bags.”
“I want people laying out for balls and just playing hard. When people show up to the ball park, I want them to know that we’re going to get after them for seven innings,” he said. “In my opinion if you play hard for seven innings, you’re going to get that outcome that you want.”
The Cougars went 17-13 in 2019 but just 4-5 in District 4 competition and lost seven of their final nine games. They are just two years removed from claiming the MAIS AAA state championship and will be led next season by a talented group of seniors, including USM commit Slade Wilks, Ras Pace, Tate Duncan, Patrick Gill and Colby Thompson.
