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Jenkins takes over Marshall baseball By BARRY BURLESON
Editor  | New Patriot
Bart Jenkins is pictured while leading the Starkville Academy Volunteers on the baseball diamond. |
Bart
Jenkins believes toughness wins games and he’s bringing that philosophy
to Marshall Academy as the school’s new baseball coach. He
spent one year at MA in 2002-03 as an assistant and then left for head
coaching positions at Starkville Academy and later Pillow Academy, both
bigger Class AAA schools. In three seasons at Starkville and three at
Pillow, his teams won at least 20 games each year and were always in
the playoffs, finishing as state runners-up twice. “I’ve been very, very lucky,” said Jenkins, 30. “I did not win a single one of those games. “I
had a lot of talented players and a lot of kids who worked really hard.
I do things to promote toughness, and that carries over to other
sports, too.” He said he is making the move to
lead the Patriot baseball program because he knows of the strong work
ethic established by previous head coaches Johnny Ray (the past two
seasons) and before that Jimmy Hicks. “I didn’t
want to start at rock bottom,” Jenkins said. “I’ve kept up with the
program since I left. The kids at Marshall already have that foundation
of good fundamentals and toughness. The kids at Marshall have always
played extremely hard and that’s because they’ve been coached well.
They’re kids who love to play the game.” He met
with his new team a couple of weeks ago, and he is looking forward to
making the move to the Holly Springs and getting started. “Hopefully,
the kids will play hard for me and we can continue the baseball
tradition that has been established,” Jenkins said. “The kids have been
in the playoffs and hopefully they can feed off a head coach who has
been lucky enough to get there, too, and we can get back in that
situation.” Jenkins will also be assisting head
coach Keith Wicker with football. He helped with successful football
programs at Starkville and Pillow. “I’m impressed
with Coach Wicker, Coach Dailey, Coach Rodgers and Mrs. Hubbard
(headmaster),” he said. “They’re a class group of people, and I look
forward to being associated with them.” Jenkins
is originally from Moorhead. He is a 2000 graduate of Delta State
University and also coached two years at Bayou Academy after leaving
DSU. |
