Kirkland has 'pretty incredible' start to baseball coaching career

Jun. 2—MOULTRIE, Ga. — A little over a year ago, Colin Kirkland accepted his first baseball head coaching job, taking over a Centennial High program that had gone a combined 18-38 over the previous two seasons.

Twelve months later, he had led the Knights to a school-record 29 wins, a Region 6-5A championship and a berth in the Final Four.

"I couldn't have imagined it," said the former Colquitt County infielder and son of former Packers coach — and Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame member — Tony Kirkland. "It was pretty incredible."

Indeed.

Centennial had 15 seniors, none used to winning many baseball games, although they were versatile.

And, once they gained some confidence, "they began to make things happen."

"I knew going in we had an older group," Colin said. "But I wasn't sure they knew how to win. We had to learn that as we went along. It was really fascinating to watch a group that had never done anything like that and see them bring it all together."

Colin grew up watching his father build confident young hitters at both South Effingham and Colquitt County and obviously picked up a thing or two.

Centennial's biggest improvement came offensively.

The Knights hit .325 as a team and hit 14 home runs, after hitting just two in 2022. They drove in 248 runs.

"We blew last year's stats out of the water," he said.

The team had just two seniors who have committed to playing next season: Matthew Cannon, who is going to Spartanburg Methodist, and Luke Sweigart, who is heading to West Virginia to play at Glenville State.

Both are catchers.

And they caught a pair of outstanding junior pitchers who will be the anchors of the 2024 Centennial team.

Both were selected for the Georgia Dugout Club's Top 100 Showcase.

Side-arming Jamie Whittier went 10-1 with a 1.34 ERA and 76 strikeouts in 73 innings on the mound.

Reed Thursby was 8-3 with a 2.74 ERA while striking out 75 batters in 63 innings.

And Cannon's and Sweigart's work behind the plate was even more impressive considering Centennial's pitching coach left the program in February.

"So they called all the pitches," Colin said. "And I was comfortable with that.They had done it with their summer teams."

Another key to the Knights' unlikely success was their ability to play well on their home field in Roswell, where they went 17-2.

"We loved playing at home," Colin said. "We built a sense of pride playing there. We were comfortable at our house and when we put the white jerseys on, we felt pretty confident."

Among those home games were nine in the playoffs.

The Knights had no trouble with Tri-Cities in the first round, winning 10-0 and 15-0, and then they swept Flowery Branch 8-2 and 4-3 in the second round.

In the quarterfinals, Centennial eliminated Decatur 5-4 and 10-4 and won a second-straight coin flip to play host to McIntosh in the state semifinals.

The Knights won the first game of the three-game series 13-0, but the Chiefs came back to take the final two 15-9 and 9-3.

McIntosh fell to Loganville in the state championship series.

Colin said the Final Four series drew 1,200 fans and that as the team continued its success throughout the season, more former players began showing up to watch and encourage the latest edition of the Knights play.

"I got super lucky with this group," Colin said. "I really did."

It didn't hurt to have his father either a phone call away or sitting behind the dugout offering support.

"He was always there when I needed him," he said.

And Colin points out that his father also took his first baseball team, South Effingham, to the Final Four back in 2004.

After graduating from Colquitt County in 2013, the younger Kirkland red-shirted one season at Valdosta State before transferring to Thomas University where he played four seasons and graduated in 2018.

After a season working for his father at Colquitt County coaching the outfielders and hitters, he took a job at Tift County as a varsity baseball and varsity softball assistant.

In 2021, he went to Alpharetta as a varsity baseball assistant coach, head ninth-grade baseball coach and head softball coach.

His final games as an assistant at Alpharetta came on Ike Aultman Field at Jerry Croft Stadium when the Raiders were eliminated by the Packers in the 2022 playoffs.

Colin's experience with high school softball will be put to the test this fall when he takes over as Centennial's head coach.

The Lady Knights have won just 16 games over the last two seasons.

The fall also will be significant for Colin when he and former Marist High and Georgia Tech softball player Kendall Chadwick get married on October 7.