Edgewood Academy heads into next year with two notable athletes stepping into new roles with the school.
First was Justin Chandler, who moved from assistant baseball coach to head coach. Chandler played a handful of sports for the Wildcats from seventh through 11th grade. Although graduating from Stanhope Elmore in 2010, he considers himself a Wildcat more than anything else.
Chandler played under legendary coach Bobby Carr, walking away with multiple state championship rings in both football and baseball. And it is that level of success Carr had at Edgewood that Chandler hopes to bring back. However, although state championships are what any coach searches for, Chandler hopes to impact his players much more than on the field.
“Winning ball games is great; winning state championships is great, but my ultimate goal is to have them succeed in life,” Chandler said. “It's bigger than baseball.”
What will play to Chandler’s benefit, especially early on, is his familiarity with the team. His players already know what is to be expected from him, and in Chandler’s eyes, he would rather it have been him than some entirely new to Edgewood.
“I would rather come in as the head coach than some random person nobody knows,” Chandler said. “The kids are familiar with me. I'm familiar with the school, familiar with the program. I already had those tools. It just all depends on how the kids would react, but I think the kids will settle in a lot faster with me being in that role than somebody else.”
The other notable return was Grayson Laney, who is stepping in for Scott Snow, is notable athlete who played a plethora of sports during her time at Edgewood Academy.
Following her time with the Wildcats, Laney went on to play collegiate softball at Wallace Community College in Dothan for two years before graduating from Troy this May. It’s her familiarity with the program and expectations that ultimately drew her back, except this time in a new role.
“I was very honored when Edgewood reached out to me, because it just feels like home,” Laney said. “Even after I graduated, I had lots of friends and family that were still there, so I continued to go back, and I just knew it's not going to feel like a job at all being there every day, because I never dreaded school. Edgewood was always a safe place for me, it was always a home. And I'm very, very excited to be back within its walls.”
Laney plans to use her shared experience of donning the Edgewood softball uniform while also keying into her collegiate experience to help mold her team both on and off the field.
“I have experience entering college as a student athlete and as just a regular student, and they're very different,” Laney said. “The thing I want to relay the most is both ways, even as a student and as an athlete, you're not guaranteed anything. You have to work, you have to be in shape, you have to be conditioned, and you have to have the right attitude. And I think my goal with these girls is to not only shape them as players, but shape them as independent, respectable young women.”
Although the start of the baseball and softball season is a long way away, both of the new coaches will attack the summer to build Edgewood back to a place it once was — at the top of AISA.
