COLLINSVILLE — Forty-four years later, it’s impossible not to notice the impact Jerry Boatner has had at West Lauderdale.

Since 1974, the school’s baseball program has been headed by Boatner, and the results have been staggering: 14 state championships and 1,176 wins, the most in Mississippi high school baseball history. That’s in addition to more than 600 wins and eight state championships in the years Boatner coached slow-pitch softball at West Lauderdale.

Monday marked the first day MHSAA baseball teams could practice after school, and this season will mark Boatner’s final one in Collinsville, as the 73-year-old coach said he’s ready to spend more time with his wife, Linda, and their children and grandchildren.

“If I didn’t have any family, I would do it until the day I die,” Boatner said. “The good Lord has blessed me to allow me to do something I have a great passion for, and he’s blessed our program. I have to give him all the thanks and glory, but I keep coaching, I’d feel selfish.”

For the players, Boatner’s pending retirement hasn’t yet sunk in.

“I’ve kind of thought about it some, and it hasn’t really registered with me yet, because he brings so much energy every day and works so hard to make this program what it is now,” junior pitcher/shortstop Kameron Partridge said. “It just hasn’t sunk in yet with anyone I don’t think.”

Senior catcher Chase Tilghman said he has mixed feelings about 2018 being Boatner’s last year at West Lauderdale.

“I’m happy for him,” Tilghman said. “He has a pretty good legacy here, and he’s a legend among us, but it’s kind of sad, especially for the seniors, because we’ve spent six years with him. It’s pretty emotional for everyone.”

Boatner began coaching baseball at Clarkdale from 1968-73 before coming to West Lauderdale in 1974. This year will mark 50 total years of coaching baseball, something that made sticking around another year attractive to Boatner despite the temptation to retire after last year’s MHSAA Class 4A title.

“I probably should have retired last year when we won the state championship, but I wanted to get 50 years in,” Boatner said. “There’s just something magical about 50 years. I told (the school) this year would be the year because, No. 1, I didn’t want to change my mind and, No. 2, it gives the school the opportunity to find the right person (to replace me) and make plans for the future.”

Originally, Boatner wanted to see how far he could go in professional baseball, but he hurt his arm his senior year at Delta State, where he played for legendary coach Boo Ferriss. When he began at Clarkdale, the school hadn’t won a game in several years, Boatner said, and he remembered the excitement after the team won his first game as head coach.

“I saw how the fans and players reacted, and from that time on, I never thought about being a professional baseball player again,” Boatner said. “I knew God had a plan for me. When I tried to play pro ball, every other year my arm would hurt. Once I started coaching, I’ve never, ever been sick or missed practice.”

While retirement is looming, Boatner said he’s every bit as motivated about this year as any previous season — perhaps even more than usual.

“I’m more excited now than I’ve ever been,” Boatner said. “I just told the boys I want it to be a special year and a special time.”

That excitement has carried over to the players, as they want to give Boatner a retirement present to beat any other retirement present.

“We’re going to try to end it off with a state championship for him, because that’s all he talks about, getting that nice even number 15,” Tilghman said.

Partridge said even though last year’s 33-3 team set as high a standard as any, he isn’t selling the potential of this year’s team short.

“We can be just as good or better than last year’s team,” Partridge said. “We just have to work hard like we did last year. It’s always a grind. You have to work hard and be disciplined.”

Tilghman was a little more reserved when it came to comparisons between this year’s team and last, but he said the expectations are still as high as they always are at the school.

“We aren’t going to be as good as we were last year, but we are going to be more hard-working than we were,” Tilghman said. “That’s going to be what makes us good.”

No amount of championship hangover will affect this year’s squad either, Partridge added.

“We’re all fired up just like last year; there’s no let-up,” he said. “We’re working just as hard if not harder than last year, because we know the feeling (of winning state), and we want to get back there and experience it again.”

While he may be retiring from head coaching duties, Boatner said he isn’t finished with the game of baseball. He and his wife will move to a house they own in the Atlanta, Georgia, area, where Linda Boatner has family. Jerry Boatner said he has already spoken to several coaches around where he’ll be living about the possibility of working as a volunteer assistant coach.

“We’re looking forward to the next chapter of my life. We’ll see what the good Lord has in store. I’m going to be a volunteer coach because if they aren’t paying me, they can’t tell me when I have to work,” Jerry Boatner joked.

West Lauderdale will begin its regular season Feb. 23 against Southeast Lauderdale in the Lauderdale County tournament.