By Al Muskewitz
Hughes takes another swing for the fences as Faith’s new baseball coach, brings aboard former major-leaguer Chris Hammond and sons to help
Cory Hughes knows enough baseball to put a competitive team out on the field. What he doesn’t know he’ll have the luxury of a former major-leaguer to bring out of the bullpen to help.
Hughes, fully engaged in his first year as the school’s basketball coach, recently added a second coaching assignment to his resume when he accepted the head baseball spot at Faith Christian.
He’s eager for the challenge and expects the news will be well-received in his circles.
“One thing I told my guys I work with is once this get printed that I’m baseball coach all my buddies I graduated with will just be laughing,” Hughes said. “They’ll get a kick out of that I’m coaching baseball because baseball was not my thing at Alexandria.”
Not his thing? He played the game growing up, stepped away from it for a couple years and picked it back up his senior year because he wasn’t quite ready to hang up the gear. He was listed as an outfielder for coach Andy Shaw’s Valley Cubs, but really was the pinch-runner – when he wasn’t asleep in the dugout (that’s another story for another time).
He got one at-bat. Hit a ball deep to left that cleared the fence and had everybody in the dugout celebrating a home run – but it was five feet foul. He struck out a couple pitches later.
“I did get to be around Andy and learned a whole lot of just fundamentals; that’s the big thing I picked up on in that year I was playing with him,” Hughes said. “Strategy and all that stuff, that’s where I’m going to lean on the Hammond boys for all of that.”
That would be former major-league pitcher Chris Hammond and his sons Jake and Andy, along with assistant coach Caden Sparks.
Coaching is all about connections and there were plenty in the Lions’ search. For starters, when they went looking for a successor to Jason Pahman they reached out to Shaw for advice.
Shaw, whose sister is a kindergarten teacher at Faith, suggested they look right in their backyard at his former pinch-runner.
Hughes has been close with the Hammonds for a long time through their ministries and was with Jake when he received the text from Faith head of school Chip Jones inquiring about his interest in the job. Jake said he’d help if he wanted to do it – and he’d get his brother and father to come along. Nobody had to ask anybody twice.
“It just all came together,” Jones said. “It was pretty neat looking out there and Chris Hammond is throwing BP to high school kids. I don’t remember if he told me, but he told somebody he was having the time of his life.”
So are the players. It isn’t often a high school team gets to take batting practice for a former major-league pitcher.
“It’s pretty cool,” said senior Brodie Dodson, who’s taken one BP from the 14-year MLB veteran while doubling up with the basketball team. “There are a lot of good coaches around, but having someone from the major leagues is like a whole ‘nother level. They know so much more stuff than anybody we could imagine. He knows a lot.”
The Lions are scheduled to open at home Feb. 19, and Hughes expects they’ll play even if he’s still in basketball. He currently has that team 20-10 and in the sub-regional round of the Class 1A state tournament. They play for their first area championship since 2011 Saturday night.
Faith has several new coaches for its spring sports. Jack Moore and volleyball coach Randy Haynes will coach the softball team and Reilly Kucko, a senior forward/midfielder on the Jacksonville State women’s team, will oversee the girls soccer squad. Kucko will hold her post for only one season as the North Carolina native will be leaving for physical therapy school next academic year. [*** read more]
