New baseball coach at Bob Jones meets the players
new Bob Jones Baseball Coach David Langston
(RECORD PHOTO/LINDSAY VAUGHT)
MADISON- What would cause David Langston to leave Muscle Shoals High School where he had one of the best jobs in high school sports in Alabama?
“The opportunity to coach at the highest level possible,” Langston said. “I’m going to continue to build on what’s here. Bob Jones is use to winning. I’m going to come in here and build on that and see how much further we can take this program. Baseball is all I coach. I’m passionate about the sport.”
Originally from Jasper, Alabama, Langston graduated from Walker High School and Birmingham Southern where he played baseball for current UAB Head Coach Brian Shoop.
Langston is close with two baseball coaches in the area. Sparkman’s Kellen Greer played for and coached with Langston at Northwest Shoals. Adam Moseley at Grissom played with Langston at Birmingham Southern.
“It’s going to be fun competing against those guys. I’m not going to be able to handle loosing to those guys. It’s going to be tough,”
Langston has built a reputation as someone who can take a downtrodden program and build it into a winner. In two years at Muscle Shoals his teams won two area titles. At Northwest Shoals, his final team won 36 games.
“The goal of baseball players is to continue to play at the highest level possible and that is a big part of my job as a coach. When I tell an SEC coach a guy can play they know he can,” said Langston who had 40 players go on to play Division 1 baseball in his 10 years at Northwest Shoals. He also had eight players drafted in the MLB Amateur draft.
Jaimie Dennis is one of five former Bob Jones players who played for Langston at Northwest Shoals. Dennis moved on the play for South Alabama. The others are Nathan Huffman, Jeremy Cobb, Chris Cooper, and most recently Jeff Bolger.
Players can expect some intense practices under Langston. Players will have to adjust to the intensity and pace of practice Langston said.
“Once we hit that field it is going to be wide open. Everything I do is very structured. Every day I will post practice schedule in my classroom or in the dugout so you will know everything that’s going on. There’s not going to be ‘I wonder what we’re doing today.’ When I left junior college to coach high school I didn’t change how I run practice or how I treat players. The accountability I will hold you to didn’t change from when I coached junior college,” Langston told the players in their first meeting on June 20.
Langston said he is fine with players playing other sports. “But your number one commitment needs to be baseball.
Langston said he will plan some organized activity this summer for the players.
“The summer for high school baseball is huge. If you don’t do any work as a team in the summer, you’re loosing ground.”
“Baseball is a skill specific sport. It takes repetition after repetition.”
As far as assistant coaches, Langston said that he has one coach he would like to bring with him but that will be worked out later. He has talked to Bob Jones Assistant Head Coach and Pitching Coach Jonas Bailey and Bailey said he would love to continue working with the program.
