Generals open season with victories over local, state-ranked competition
Friends, former players celebrate Stephenson’s 30 years in coaching
The Heritage Generals got the 2017 baseball season off to a mostly-successful start this past week as the Navy-and-Red won their first three games before falling on the road at Class AAAAA Carrollton on Saturday.
“There’s definitely some stuff we can work on and build on,” head coach Eric Beagles stated. “But hopefully we still have a lot of good ball ahead of us.”
Heritage 9, Gordon Lee 3
The week started on Thursday with a road win against previouslyunbeaten Gordon Lee, who came ranked No. 1 in the Class A Public School Division.
Heritage, ranked No. 10 in Class AAAA, took a 4-0 lead after the top of the third inning and extended their advantage to 6-1 after
Friends and former players were among those on hand last Saturday afternoon at the Rossville Athletic Center to pay homage to Georgia Northwestern basketball coach and Athletic Director David Stephenson for his 30 years in coaching.
Stephenson has over 500 career wins on the court and has coached over 800 games. He has also served as a coach for soccer and track and field over the past three decades.
“It’s mind-boggling to think about,” Stephenson said. “When I first got asked to coach 30 years ago, I said I’d do it, but I really didn’t want to do it. I wanted to be a recruiter, but I fell in love with it and each year it’s gotten better and better and I enjoy it more and more.
“Looking back at 30 years, I started coaching elementary and middle school boys and now I’m coaching college (players). It’s amazing the opportunity God’s four.
Gordon Lee would get a run back in the bottom of the sixth, but a big two-run double by Joseph Hill in the top of the seventh would help seal the victory.
Tripp Church picked up the win for the Generals on the hill. He gave up one earned run in four innings, allowing three hits and a walk while striking our five. Blake Bryan and Luke Grant would both pitch in relief. Grant fanned three in 1.1 innings of work.
Heritage collected 10 hits, including multiple hits for Josh Gibson and Dylan Keown. Gibson was 3-for-4 with a homerun, two RBIs and two runs scored. Cole Wilcox matched Gibson and Hill with two RBIs.
Heritage 10, Ringgold 2
The home opener was played on Friday before a crowd of over 200 Catoosa County baseball fans, along with a couple of pro scouts thrown in for good measure.
The Generals got five strong innings from Wilcox and three RBIs from No. 9 hitter Brody Campbell in a win over the Tigers, who came into the game ranked No. 7 in Class AAA.
Heritage scored twice in each of the first three innings. Wilcox, Hill and Johnathan Hickman each had one RBI, while Campbell drove in three runs with a pair of singles.
Ringgold got two runs back a half-inning later on a Noah Parrish two-run homer, but the Generals would answer with a four-spot in the bottom of the fifth as Hill, Wilcox and Gibson all had RBIs in the frame.
Wilcox picked up the win with five innings of five-hit ball. He struck out four, walked just one batter and added a pair of RBIs at the plate. Alex Barbee threw the final two innings for the Generals. He gave up two hits and struck out one.
Campbell was 2-for-2 and reached base in all three plate appearances, scoring twice. Hill was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks, two runs scored and two RBIs. Grant was 2-for3 with a walk and two runs scored and leadoff hitter Lance Dockery got on base three times with two walks and one hit-by-pitch. He also scored twice.
“Both (Gordon Lee head coach) Mike (Dunfee) and (Ringgold head coach) Brent (Tucker) do as good of a job as anybody you’ll find getting their teams ready to play,” Beagles commented. “They’ll stretch you and they’ll test you and that’s what you need and that’s what you want. You
given me to do all of this.”
After graduating from Tennessee Temple Academy in 1985, Stephenson began coaching at his alma mater shortly thereafter. He has had stops at several schools in the north Georgia and Chattanooga area along the way, including Unity Christian, Grace Academy, Tennessee Temple (University), Berean Academy, Lee Highway Christian and North Georgia Christian.
He left North Georgia Christian after a successful stint to begin the program at Hamilton Heights before moving on to Silverdale Baptist. He has been the head coach and Athletic Director at Georgia Northwestern for the last 10 years.
“There was twice in my career when I said I was done and I didn’t want to coach anymore and I felt the Lord didn’t want me to coach anymore,” Stephenson explained. “Both times I was wrong and I got drawn back in (to coaching) by Him and I’m still doing it now.”
One man who has been there through nearly all of it is Mark Wiedenbenner, who played for Stephenson in the early days of his high school coaching career and who has served as an assistant for Stephenson with the Bobcats’ men’s program for the past several years.
“I’ve known him as a coach, a mentor and a friend for more than 25 years,” Wiedenbenner said. “He’s just a great person to look up to and he’s always been there to help me when I’ve had problems. He’s someone that I can always count on.
“Before I started coaching with him, he was someone I always kept in contact with and he wouldn’t let me get too far away from him. He was always checking up on me. He’s just a great guy.”
Another former Bobcat player-turnedcoach, Bud Todd, credits Stephenson for helping turn his life around.
“He pretty much taught me to be a man,” Todd explained. “The first year I played for him, I was dating a girl that kind of got me off in the wrong direction. But he brought me out of the dark and back into the program. He got me a job and he really turned my life around 180 degrees. He’s been a like a second father to me.”
Stephenson graduated from Tennessee Temple High in 1985 and graduated from Temple’s college in 1992. He earned his Master’s Degree in 2002 and has spent much of his coaching career also working in administration.
“I’ve been blessed to have a lot of great people working under me in a lot of sports,” he said. “I’ve also coached a lot of great kids who have gone on to become quality people.”
Amber Weaver first played basketball for Stephenson at Silverdale Baptist Academy and joined the basketball and volleyball coaching staffs at Georgia Northwestern in 2016.
“From him, I’ve learned it’s more than just sports,” Weaver explained. “He tries to get (his players) to work on their morals and tries to get them to become true, upstanding adult citizens one day, not just college basketball players.
“As a player, he expected us to work hard, to always be there and to put forth the effort. One thing I always liked about playing for him was that he would pray with us and he was very personable with us. It wasn’t just about sports, he was there for us as people too.”
Stephenson says the most rewarding part of the job is seeing and hearing about former players who have gone on to have success off the field, like Matt Woods.
Woods played for the Bobcats and later served as a graduate assistant for the men’s team. He is currently attending medical school at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, one of the most prestigious medical schools in the world.
“I can honestly say my whole life changed for the better when I was introduced to Coach,” Woods said. “He’s been a role model for me from the very beginning and I tell people all the time that I couldn’t be where I am now had I never sat in his office. He’s an amazing mentor and friend and someone who I’m lucky enough to know will continue to be a positive influence in my life for a long time.”
“When I started 30 years ago, I just wanted to use athletics to disciple guys and girls,” Stephenson added. “It’s still my main goal here today, to use athletics to get (players) to the next place in their lives where God wants them to be. Seeing the fruit of that is really awesome.”