Hiwassee Dam – After spending five years as an assistant at Murphy, the next stop on Tommy Strickland’s coaching journey brings him to Hiwassee Dam.
Strickland graduated from Huntingdon College in 1989, spent three years as a graduate assistant, four years at high schools in Alabama and has been coaching on and off ever since. In addition to coaching the Eagles this spring, he is also teaching family and consumer sciences at Hiwassee Dam High School.
“To me, baseball is the ultimate sport,” Strickland said. “There’s no particular size or body type that determines whether you’re going to be good or not. What determines whether you’re going to be good or not is the effort you put into it.”
The Eagles struggled last season with a 2-12 record, though six of those losses were by two runs or less. Hiwassee Dam graduated four seniors from a young team last year and will be even younger, with just one senior in Seth Hooper and two juniors in Evan Hedrick and Tanner Taylor.
“They’re stepping up in a big way,” Strickland said. “We kind of put the leadership role on them because of their experience.”
Strickland hasn’t gotten as much practice time outside as he would like because of some rainy weather the past few weeks, but said he and assistant coach Ronnie Davis have a good plan on how to get as much done as possible, whether indoors or outdoors. He added that athletic director David Payne and Principal Daniel McNabb have been big helps in making sure the team has a place to practice.
“The administration and parents are incredible over here,” Strickland said.
With the Eagles not having a winning season since 2015, he doesn’t want his team to dwell on the past. He knows they will make mistakes, but wants to make sure they don’t make them again and use every day as an opportunity to get better.
Strickland isn’t guaranteeing that getting better means winning more games than last year. Instead, he’s telling his team that he knows continuing to drill down on the right things in practice will mean seeing growth from the beginning to the end of the season.
“I’ve told them that mistakes are going to happen,” Strickland said. “We’re young, and we’re going to make some. That’s the way it is. The best we can do is learn from the mistakes and not make them again. I expect them to, I want them to. Because that means that they’re learning.”
Weather permitting, Hiwassee Dam opened up its season at Towns County, Ga., on Monday and had its home opener against the Indians on Tuesday. The results of both games were not available until after this week’s edition of the Cherokee Scout went to press. Next week, the Eagles will travel to Cherokee on Tuesday, then host the Braves on Friday.