x
Breaking News
More () »

Former MLB All-Star and World Series champ Helps Tattnall win championships

Former MLB veteran Kevin Brown has been on the varsity baseball coaching staff for Tattnall Square Academy since 2008, and has helped the Trojans win 7 of the program's 10 state championships.

The Tattnall Trojans are a dominant force in high school baseball in Central Georgia, always making deep runs in the postseason, and have won 5 Class A state titles in the last 7 years. While talent is key, coaching cannot be overlooked, and neither can experience, especially when that experience is coming from a World Series champion and former All-Star.

“I think obviously the biggest thing, you know I was sick as a dog when we won the World Series in '97, you know you just can’t take that away. I mean that is a team accomplishment that everyone is looking for," former MLB pitcher Kevin Brown said.

An accomplishment Kevin Brown achieved 21 years ago while playing for the Florida Marlins. After 19 years in the bigs, Brown was a World Series Champ, and 6 time All-Star. And when retirement called, the Wilkinson County grad knew Macon was the answer, specifically Tattnall Square Academy.

“Easy decision when I retired, kids were at school here playing ball, so it was very easy to just walk out and get a chance while I am watching them play I got invited to come out and interact with them," Brown said.

But coaching wasn’t part of the plan at first.

“I never really thought much about it, the passion is just so hard to pack up and put away and the desire to be around the game," Brown said.

So the pitcher returned to the diamond in a different role, as one of the coaches for the middle school team in 2007, and then got called up to the varsity coaching staff a year later.

"I was kind of waiting for the day that he retired because of course I would be crazy not to say hey you want to help?" Tattnall head baseball coach Joey Hiller said.

And the players reactions?

“A lot of those guys saw him play, they had an immediate oh my. It was a shocked factor, like "oh my that is Kevin Brown talking to me," Hiller said.

But the players now? Maybe not so much.

“These guys now they know all the young players, they don’t remember watching me play, they would have to go back into the archives and find videos of me pitching now," Brown said.

Since Brown joined the coaching staff in the 2008, he has been a part of 7 state championships. And while winning these titles may not be the same as the World Series in '97, coaching has given him something the big leagues' couldn't.

"It was hard, sometimes still is hard being away from the game in the big leagues," Brown said. "The families and the coaches, and the kids we are all kind of intermeshed, its not just you know a job. You are living and breathing with these kids through the game and beyond that and into their life after."

Before You Leave, Check This Out