{"id":31235,"date":"2025-05-16T11:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T11:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/31235\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T11:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T11:54:10","slug":"this-week-in-hs-sports-brad-phillips-proves-the-hartselle-baseball-tradition-is-in-good-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/31235\/","title":{"rendered":"This week in HS Sports: Brad Phillips proves the Hartselle baseball tradition is in good hands"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is an opinion piece.<\/p>\n

It would be easy for a new coach to get caught in the Hartselle baseball tradition. <\/p>\n

Brad Phillips admits he\u2019s done just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard not to look up and see all those championships,\u201d he said Thursday. <\/p>\n

Prior to this week, the Tigers had won 9 state baseball championships \u2013 all under legendary coach William Booth, who died while 2024 state finals were happening<\/a>. Phillips, who spent six years on the South Alabama coaching staff, was hired last year to continue the Hartselle tradition Booth started<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He did just that this week, leading his top-ranked team to a best-of-3 series win over a tough Chelsea squad to clinch yet another Class 6A state title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope he would be proud,\u201d Phillips said of Booth following Hartselle\u2019s 4-3, 9-3 doubleheader sweep of the Hornets at Jacksonville State<\/a>. \u201cThe foundation of the program is on him. He\u2019s on the Mount Rushmore of high school baseball and coaching in general. I hope he would be proud of not only the wins but also of how the guys represented the \u2018H\u2019 on their chest.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1\/78<\/p>\n

Chelsea vs. Hartselle Playoff Baseball<\/p>\n

Phillips spent nine years at Troy University and six more as the pitching coach at South Alabama before taking the job at Hartselle last spring.<\/p>\n

He admitted his new gig came with some added pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey graduated 11 seniors, who all went out to play college baseball,\u201d he said of last year\u2019s state runner-up squad. \u201cWe don\u2019t have many seniors this year. The pressure was there because you didn\u2019t know what the cupboard was going to fully be like. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids bought in, and they worked so hard. It hasn\u2019t been easy, but it\u2019s not supposed to be easy when you get to this point. I thoroughly enjoyed the pressure of the program and knowing how much baseball means to the Hartselle community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phillips said the transition from college coaching back to high school wasn\u2019t as difficult as he might have imagined because of the talent and maturity of the Hartselle players.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the level of player that is around our area, I quickly realized I could treat these guys a little older than they are,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s been the fun part. It\u2019s a different caliber of player and being able to coach them, work them out, has really been fun. It\u2019s the same game. It\u2019s a little slower at times, but as far as the athlete I was able to coach, it\u2019s very similar to their passion, their want to and their skills as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The transition certainly seemed flawless on the surface. <\/p>\n

Hartselle finished 35-8 and was ranked No. 1 by the Alabama Sports Writers Association throughout the regular season.<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cTo win one feels really, really good,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you are younger, you start thinking about yourself a little bit. This one right here was totally about the kids. All my thoughts were just on the kids and wanting them to win one because they worked so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hartselle program \u2013 with its new leader at the helm \u2013 doesn\u2019t show signs of slowing down anytime soon. Several key players will return next year, including state finals hero and MVP Asher Doepel.<\/p>\n

The Tiger tradition is safe in the hands of Brad Phillips. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels really good to carry on where the program has been for the last 25 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thought for the Week<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery strike brings you closer to the next home run.\u201d \u2013 Babe Ruth. <\/p>\n

Ben Thomas is the high school managing producer at AL.com. He has been named one of the 50 legends of the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Follow him on twitter at @BenThomasPreps or email him at bthomas@al.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is an opinion piece. It would be easy for a new coach to get caught in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[11676,5,11677,3263,11678,2431],"class_list":{"0":"post-31235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-ahsaa","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-bbh","11":"tag-high-school-sports","12":"tag-high-schoool-baseball","13":"tag-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114517381246424336","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}