New dean of S.C. coaches: No one will surpass Horton
By THOMAS GRANT JR., T&D Senior Sports Writer | Posted: Sunday, May 27, 2012 5:45 am | (0) Comments
Georgetown High School Coach Mike Johnson was surprised to learn that Bamberg-Ehrhardt Coach David Horton is retiring. Johnson, too, has been coaching for more than four decades, with 733 wins to his credit. Horton has a record 889.
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GEORGETOWN ? Mike Johnson was taken aback for a moment.
The Georgetown High School baseball coach just learned this past Wednesday his friend and near equal in job longevity, David Horton of Bamberg-Ehrhardt, has decided to retire after 44 seasons. Despite having coached a year less than Horton, a shocked Johnson could never envision the Red Raiders’ longtime leader hanging up the cleats before him.
Yet it was as recent as four years ago when both men realized how much they were truly the Palmetto State’s elder statesmen on the diamond.
“David and I were walking through the lobby going into a meeting and he said, ‘Have you looked around at all these coaches?” Johnson said. “I said ‘Well, not particularly. Why?’ He said, ‘You realize you and I are the oldest two here? (laughing)’ I said, ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m in my prime!’”
Still full of vigor at age 64, to the point where he ran a 40-yard dash during the baseball season, Johnson now finds himself as the active leader in baseball coaching victories among S.C. High School League coaches. Nevertheless, even Johnson has no delusions of getting the 157 victories necessary to surpass Horton’s state record of 889.
“You know, it will take a while to get that,” said Johnson, whose career record is 733-435. “David is the icon of high school baseball coach.”
While both head coaches have ballparks at their respective high schools named in their honor, Johnson still sees Horton as the standard-bearer of South Carolina high school baseball coaches. Horton has 14 state titles, including eight straight won between 1974-81, while Johnson’s lone title came in 1988 in Class 4-A.
“Somebody like David Horton, I’m not anything close to him,” Johnson said. “You start counting state championships, which tells you what type of coach he was. He’s just always the same person. He’s serious about the game of baseball. He does everything right.”
Johnson and Horton only coached against each other twice, although both were memorable for various reasons to Johnson. The first meeting was a rain-drenched affair in St. Stephen during the 1970s in which both teams scored nine runs in the first inning before play was delayed due to the bad weather.
The game was replayed later in the season and won by the Red Raiders. Years later, the Bulldogs faced a Red Raiders’ team led by future Major League player Preston Wilson during an invitational tournament at Georgetown High School.
During batting practice, Horton approached Johnson with a special request.
“He said, ‘Everywhere we’ve been ... the last two games nobody has pitched to (Wilson)’,” Johnson said. “‘He’s been walked and walked.’ He said ‘the pro scouts are going to be here tonight. I’m going to ask you a favor. I want you to pitch to him’.”
Johnson promised to honor Horton’s request, save for any late strategic decision. On Wilson’s first three at-bats, he hit a long fly out to left center field, followed it with what Johnson described as a “whistling bullet” over the third baseman and sent a memorable two-shot well out of anyone’s reach.
“We’ve got some old football stands out in center field, concrete stands, they’re about 20 rows up in the stands in dead center field,” Johnson said. “It’s only 331 feet to the fence, but Preston came up and he hit a ball and everybody turned and looked at it in dead center field and it kept going and going and ...
“All of a sudden, we thought it was going to get into those stands. It went over ’em. We established it went close to 450 feet. The old boss came off the field and they told him the same thing they said in ‘Bull Durham.’ He said, “You know that ball Preston hit, it went so far it had a stewardess on it.”
With B-E trailing by two runs, Johnson used his “strategic option” and intentionally walked Wilson in the bottom of the seventh with two outs to load the bases. The next batter popped out to end the game.
Once the game ended, Johnson ran over to praise Wilson both for his play and the way he and the Red Raiders carried themselves.
“His teams have always been well-disciplined,” Johnson said. “I bet he’s never had a kid thrown out of a game. I bet he’s never had a discipline problem.”
With Horton’s retirement, what he and Johnson talked about years ago is even more of a reality. As Johnson enters his 44th season in high school baseball, he finds it hard to envision a Red Raiders’ dugout without Horton.
“People like (Horton) are getting scarce,” Johnson said. “It leaves a void.”
Contact the writer: tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by calling (803) 533-5547. Follow him on Twitter@TandDSports.
Winningest S.C. High School League baseball coaches
*1. David Horton (Bamberg-Ehrhardt) ? 889-261
2. Mike Johnson (Georgetown) ? 733-455
*3. Jerry Stoots (R.B. Stall) ? 598-241
*4. Al Berry (Lancaster/Dutch Fork) ? 562-241
*5. Dean Jones (Chesnee) ? 541-204
* retired from SCHSL
source - SCHSL/Palmetto’s Finest.
Read more: http://thetandd.com/new-dean-of-s-c-coaches-no-one-will-surpass/article_7a41965e-a7ba-11e1-a981-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1wD9F6bAb
By THOMAS GRANT JR., T&D Senior Sports Writer | Posted: Sunday, May 27, 2012 5:45 am | (0) Comments
Georgetown High School Coach Mike Johnson was surprised to learn that Bamberg-Ehrhardt Coach David Horton is retiring. Johnson, too, has been coaching for more than four decades, with 733 wins to his credit. Horton has a record 889.
Related Galleries
The David Horton Scrapbook
The David Horton Scrapbook
(35) Photos
GEORGETOWN ? Mike Johnson was taken aback for a moment.
The Georgetown High School baseball coach just learned this past Wednesday his friend and near equal in job longevity, David Horton of Bamberg-Ehrhardt, has decided to retire after 44 seasons. Despite having coached a year less than Horton, a shocked Johnson could never envision the Red Raiders’ longtime leader hanging up the cleats before him.
Yet it was as recent as four years ago when both men realized how much they were truly the Palmetto State’s elder statesmen on the diamond.
“David and I were walking through the lobby going into a meeting and he said, ‘Have you looked around at all these coaches?” Johnson said. “I said ‘Well, not particularly. Why?’ He said, ‘You realize you and I are the oldest two here? (laughing)’ I said, ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m in my prime!’”
Still full of vigor at age 64, to the point where he ran a 40-yard dash during the baseball season, Johnson now finds himself as the active leader in baseball coaching victories among S.C. High School League coaches. Nevertheless, even Johnson has no delusions of getting the 157 victories necessary to surpass Horton’s state record of 889.
“You know, it will take a while to get that,” said Johnson, whose career record is 733-435. “David is the icon of high school baseball coach.”
While both head coaches have ballparks at their respective high schools named in their honor, Johnson still sees Horton as the standard-bearer of South Carolina high school baseball coaches. Horton has 14 state titles, including eight straight won between 1974-81, while Johnson’s lone title came in 1988 in Class 4-A.
“Somebody like David Horton, I’m not anything close to him,” Johnson said. “You start counting state championships, which tells you what type of coach he was. He’s just always the same person. He’s serious about the game of baseball. He does everything right.”
Johnson and Horton only coached against each other twice, although both were memorable for various reasons to Johnson. The first meeting was a rain-drenched affair in St. Stephen during the 1970s in which both teams scored nine runs in the first inning before play was delayed due to the bad weather.
The game was replayed later in the season and won by the Red Raiders. Years later, the Bulldogs faced a Red Raiders’ team led by future Major League player Preston Wilson during an invitational tournament at Georgetown High School.
During batting practice, Horton approached Johnson with a special request.
“He said, ‘Everywhere we’ve been ... the last two games nobody has pitched to (Wilson)’,” Johnson said. “‘He’s been walked and walked.’ He said ‘the pro scouts are going to be here tonight. I’m going to ask you a favor. I want you to pitch to him’.”
Johnson promised to honor Horton’s request, save for any late strategic decision. On Wilson’s first three at-bats, he hit a long fly out to left center field, followed it with what Johnson described as a “whistling bullet” over the third baseman and sent a memorable two-shot well out of anyone’s reach.
“We’ve got some old football stands out in center field, concrete stands, they’re about 20 rows up in the stands in dead center field,” Johnson said. “It’s only 331 feet to the fence, but Preston came up and he hit a ball and everybody turned and looked at it in dead center field and it kept going and going and ...
“All of a sudden, we thought it was going to get into those stands. It went over ’em. We established it went close to 450 feet. The old boss came off the field and they told him the same thing they said in ‘Bull Durham.’ He said, “You know that ball Preston hit, it went so far it had a stewardess on it.”
With B-E trailing by two runs, Johnson used his “strategic option” and intentionally walked Wilson in the bottom of the seventh with two outs to load the bases. The next batter popped out to end the game.
Once the game ended, Johnson ran over to praise Wilson both for his play and the way he and the Red Raiders carried themselves.
“His teams have always been well-disciplined,” Johnson said. “I bet he’s never had a kid thrown out of a game. I bet he’s never had a discipline problem.”
With Horton’s retirement, what he and Johnson talked about years ago is even more of a reality. As Johnson enters his 44th season in high school baseball, he finds it hard to envision a Red Raiders’ dugout without Horton.
“People like (Horton) are getting scarce,” Johnson said. “It leaves a void.”
Contact the writer: tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by calling (803) 533-5547. Follow him on Twitter@TandDSports.
Winningest S.C. High School League baseball coaches
*1. David Horton (Bamberg-Ehrhardt) ? 889-261
2. Mike Johnson (Georgetown) ? 733-455
*3. Jerry Stoots (R.B. Stall) ? 598-241
*4. Al Berry (Lancaster/Dutch Fork) ? 562-241
*5. Dean Jones (Chesnee) ? 541-204
* retired from SCHSL
source - SCHSL/Palmetto’s Finest.
Read more: http://thetandd.com/new-dean-of-s-c-coaches-no-one-will-surpass/article_7a41965e-a7ba-11e1-a981-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1wD9F6bAb