MERIDIAN —
Meridian High School will have its third head coach in three years when the 2013 season begins in March. However, the new head Wildcat will be familiar to MHS fans.
Meridian graduate and longtime MHS assistant coach Robert Cole has been named the Wildcats’ newest baseball coach and was approved by the school board last week.
“I think it’s just a wonderful opportunity,” Cole said. “It’s a great chance to lead the Wildcats and get us back to being successful.”
Cole graduated from MHS in 1983 and then served as an assistant for the Wildcats since 1995 under Bill McFarland and Chuck Butler. Cole was not on Charlie Smith’s staff this past season.
It’s been a tough past two seasons for the Wildcats, who last made the state playoffs in 2009 when Butler, now Meridian’s athletic director, led them to a 19-10 finish. MHS then went 16-9 in 2010, for its most recent winning record.
In Butler’s final season, Meridian fell to 8-16 in 2011, returning just three starters. And then in Smith’s lone season at the helm, the Wildcats finished 4-22, including an 0-9 mark in the rugged Division 5-6A that included eventual state champion Oak Grove and the two-time defending state champ Petal. Meridian had just seven seniors on the roster and played a host of freshmen and sophomores.
That has Cole optimistic about a quick turnaround.
“The younger guys got a chance to play and experience Class 6A baseball,” he said. “That can only help with them having some experience.
“We have to get back in a baseball mindset and learn how to win again.”
Cole intends to do just that by focusing on fundamentals and building a team around its strengths, whatever those turn out to be.
“My philosophy is to figure out what kind of players I have and build our team around that,” he said. “I’m not sure what our players can do, but we’ll figure that out and work off of that.
“We’re going to play an exciting brand of baseball and we’ll focus on the ABCs, doing the little things that will make you better. And once we do that, we should be able to compete with anybody on our schedule.”
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Chance to lead Wildcats excites Cole
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