By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Southern Alamance alum Brent Haynes held various coaching roles for more than a decade in baseball, he said he waited for the right time to be a head coach.
That came last summer and he jumped at the opportunity, taking the job as Eastern Randolph’s baseball coach. His first season with the Wildcats begins next week.
Among his coaching stops, he has been the pitching coach at Southern Alamance. He had been teaching physical education at Southern Middle School.
“Being at Southern Alamance for several years, I wanted to have my own program so I just kind of jumped at the opportunity,” Haynes said. “I’ve always wanted to have my own program. To have the opportunity present itself is pretty exciting for me.”
When Southern won the 2005 state title in Class 3-A, Haynes was the Most Valuable Player of the championship series under coach Jason Smith, who remains the coach of the Patriots. Haynes was a junior at the time.
“I’m already missing him,” Smith said. “He’s going to do a fantastic job.”
Haynes, 35, was a pitcher and third baseman for the Patriots, often filling the No. 3 spot in the batting order. He went on to play collegiately for Young Harris and Mount Olive.
Since then, Haynes had been an instructor with Impact Baseball and, more recently, a coach and pitching coordinator with Burlington-based Dirtbags, a travel ball program. He also spent a couple of years as pitching coach at Guilford Tech.
He has had two stints on Southern’s staff sandwiched around a year as pitching coach at Chapel Hill High School.
“He has been doing it for a while,” Smith said. “To me in high school, he was always a leader and a thinker.”
Eastern Randolph, which had a 9-17 record last year, hasn’t had a winning season since going 15-9 in 2017.
Eastern Randolph will visit Southern for a non-conference game March 22. Haynes said he’d like to schedule the Patriots annually.
“It will be fun playing them,” Smith said.
