Mustangs to retire jersey of longtime coach Mike Good
MADISON – Madison Academy will officially retire the iconic No. 22 jersey of longtime former baseball coach Mike Good during a special on-field ceremony on Friday, April 3 at 5:15 p.m. prior to the Mustangs game against Guntersville.
Good is currently an assistant for the Sparkman High baseball team, but he spent 24 volunteer years coaching baseball at Madison Academy, 14 of those as head coach where he amassed a record of 406-205, four state championships including three consecutive titles from 2014-2016 and state runner-up twice. Good retired as head coach after the 2016 season going out on top with an “Alabama Blue Map,” trophy in hand. His teams won 30 games or more seven times with 14 consecutive area championships losing just three area games during that span.
“It’s flattering they continue to honor me and my work at Madison Academy and I am truly honored,” said Good, as Madison Academy also named it’s baseball complex Mike Good Field in 2019. “We built a good, competitive program. The team is still very competitive today under the guidance of David Pressley. I still consider Madison Academy baseball to be among the top 40 programs in Alabama.”
His first years at Madison Academy as an assistant he wore No. 23, but when he took over the head coach position he decided to switch to No. 22 in a move that goes way back in his life. His boyhood friend, Bernie, who was four years older, was someone Good idolized and Good rose to the varsity team of his high school of Yorktown located in Arlington, Va. he had his chance to wear the same number of 22 as one of his best friends. Good graduated high school holding multiple school records including highest single-season batting average and career walks. He earned an athletic scholarship to North Carolina-Wilmington where he played on the school’s 1975 NAIA World Series Team and the school’s first NCAA Div. I team in 1977.
Once moving to North Alabama where he worked in the private sector, Good soon began looking to help baseball in the area and he hooked up with Madison Academy. He also assisted in club baseball becoming executive director and head coach of the Monarch Baseball Club 18U travel team for 14 years.
Today, besides his volunteer work with the Sparkman baseball program, he manages a seven- member model and simulation team at deci-Bel Research, which holds his contract work with Lockheed-Martin. He and his wife, Wendy, will be married for 11 years in August. His life with his first wife of 33 years, Peggy, has been well documented as Peggy worked on a church mission trip and contracted malaria and soon succumbed to the infection in July 2010.
Good was named to the Huntsville-Madison Academy Athletic Hall of Fame and won the Coach of the Year award in the state four times, but the honor of officially retiring his coach’s number is an honor he won’t soon forget.
“I like what I do at work and on the baseball field,” added the 71-year old Good.
