By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Former Western Alamance and UNC Greensboro baseball standout Zac MacAneney has been hired as the new baseball coach at The Burlington School, which emerged as a state power on the private school level since the program’s inception.
This will mark MacAneney’s first venture into coaching, but he said the situation seems right.
“I’ve stayed in contact with a lot of baseball people, both those with colleges and in the pros,” he said. “I’ve continued with some networking in baseball.”
Chad Holland, an ex-Graham coach who was the only head coach in the TBS program’s history, made it known that he would step down when the 2024 season ended. The Spartans won North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association state championships in Class 2-A in 2022 and 2023. TBS had a 13-10 record this year.
TBS athletics director George Marshall is calling this a full rebuild of the team, making the pitch to MacAneney that it’s a chance to put his stamp on the program.
There are few returning players.
“It’s a great person to add because he has so many local connections,” Marshall said. “What’s it look like in three to five years?”
Those possibilities also intrigued MacAneney, who lives in Elon.
“It’s not going to be easy,” he said, noting he appreciated Marshall’s depiction of the situation.
The new coach’s daughter is about to enter a TBS preschool program. As he learned about the coaching vacancy, he embraced the idea of stepping back into baseball.
“I had gone back and forth when it comes to coaching,” he said. “The timing and the situation, it seemed to work out. It’s in the very beginning stages and looking forward to getting involved in the TBS community.”
At Western, MacAneney played football during part of his high school years, but he excelled on the baseball diamond. That led him to Virginia Tech, where he played as a freshman and spent three semesters there.
Once at UNCG, the outfielder became one of the top hitters for the Southern Conference team across three seasons, racking up a .312 batting average in 132 games with the Spartans. His playing career ended in 2015.
MacAneney, who turns 33 later this year, works remotely for a Durham-based healthcare staffing company.
Chris Lowe, who was a MacAneney teammate at Western Alamance, will be an assistant coach. Other staffing appointments could follow.
MacAneney’s wife, Tatiana, is a former UNCG softball player who later spent time as a softball staff member at Elon.
