Bill Baldner

A legendary baseball coach will take his rightful place in the East Mississippi Community College Sports Hall of Fame for the Class of 2022.

During Thursday’s matchup between the Lions and Northwest MS, EMCC will recognize the five newest members of EMCC’s Sports Hall of Fame, including longstanding baseball coach Bill Baldner.

“It’s been a long and winding road, but I’m excited about it,” Baldner said. “It’s been a lot of years put in with a lot of good and some bad seasons, but I’m truly humbled by it.”

Coach Baldner guided the Lions’ baseball program for 22 seasons (1985-2006), producing more than 400 career victories before capping his 25-year EMCC career with a three-year stint as the school’s assistant athletic director.

One of coach Baldner’s greatest successes with the Lions was earning Region 23 Coach of the Year honors after leading the 1986 EMCC squad to a 37-16 record, region championship, state runner-up finish, and No. 16 final national ranking.

Half of his EMCC teams participated in postseason tournament play. Baldner’s 1994 Lions squad finished fifth in the region, and EMCC’s 1998 division-winning club hosted the conference tournament. Coach Baldner is also credited for directing Meridian’s Lamar School to their first-ever state championship (1985) in any sport.

Before transitioning to coaching, Baldner played baseball at Ohio University and was selected team captain as a senior. He received his first coaching job at 23 but later honed his skills in the early 1980s under the guidance of one of the best baseball minds, Hall of Fame baseball coach Ron Polk at Mississippi State.

“Working with Polk was a blessing because he is the college baseball guru,” Baldner said. I learned how everything was supposed to be done as a coach. He taught me some tricks of the trade, but the biggest one was how to be organized.”

“He showed me how important it was to have things in order and how to cover everything properly, whether it was about practice or the program. It was truly a blessing,” he added.

Baldner’s contributions to East Mississippi can also be measured off the baseball field. His players posted a graduation rate of nearly 95% throughout his EMCC coaching career.

Roughly 80 percent of Baldner’s graduates continued their education at the four-year level, with around 50 percent furthering their baseball playing careers.

In addition, as many as 25 of his former players became baseball coaches, while five standouts are members of EMCC’s Sports Hall of Fame. Interestingly enough, a dozen brother combinations played for Baldner during his two decades of coaching on the Scooba campus.

“This school provided a place for me to make a contribution to quite a few young men’s lives,” Baldner said. “I believed that my coaching was preparing guys for life, and I’ve had quite a few become really successful men.”

“My goal was to help kids grow and become good young men, and I feel good that I was able to do that with my time at EMCC,” he said.