Staff Photo by Patrick Smith Calhoun players burst out of the tunnel to enter the field for Friday night's game against Toombs County at home.
CALHOUN, Ga. — Sometime this spring, the Calhoun High School baseball team will complete yet another successful playoff run, and no one would be surprised if the 27-2 Yellow Jackets won their third state title in the past 10 years.
If the Jackets reach the title round — something they’ve done four other times this decade — they will become the school’s third program to play for a championship this year.
The football team, unranked at one point during the season, shocked many by playing for the title against powerful Buford. The softball team had its best season ever, going 35-7 and also reaching the championship round.
The Georgia Class AA program is arguably the most successful overall in the Chattanooga area, and it’s something the coaches, athletes and community take great pride in.
“I think the No. 1 reason is the community support we have,” athletic director and football coach Hal Lamb said. “It’s unbelievable. Also, you’ve got to have good players and good coaches, and we’ve been blessed to have coaches who care about the kids and kids who aren’t afraid to work and do whatever you ask of them.”
Basically, he said, Calhoun has a winning mentality.
“Our kids like to win, this community likes to win and they want our kids to compete and do it the right way,” Mr. Lamb said. “And they expect to win.”
The school has a long history of athletic success, but when Mr. Lamb came aboard in 1998, the school’s overall programs began to take off.
“It’s ridiculous how competitive the programs are,” junior ace pitcher and star linebacker Carter Harrison said, laughing. “It’s high intensity in everything. Coach Lamb does a good job of promoting the programs and all the fans do a great job of supporting us. Everybody loves to go out and play for Calhoun. We just out-work our competition at everything. I think that’s why we’re so much better than most programs.”
Of the school’s 820 students, Mr. Lamb says at least 600 are involved in either sports or band.
A great part of the success, he says, is getting the school’s top athletes to compete in multiple sports. In this era of specialization, where parents and athletes concentrate on one sport with scholarships and professional careers in mind, the multi-sport star is disappearing at most schools.
“I’m a big believer in kids playing other sports,” said Mr. Lamb, whose son, Tre, was a three-sport star at the school and now attends Tennessee Tech University on a football scholarship. “I want them involved and competing all year long. Those guys who specialize don’t compete year round. Our school is not that big, so we have to rely on each other’s athletes.”
Entering this year, 38 former Calhoun student-athletes are competing in college. The football program alone has 12 playing in college and another six from this year’s team signed some kind of scholarship.
There are also four former Jackets currently in professional baseball organizations — Whit Robbins with Minnesota, Josh Smoker with Washington, Charlie Culberson with San Francisco and Brodie Pullen with Cincinnati. Coaches take a lot of pride in getting students signed, whether it’s a small school or big school, Mr. Lamb said.
“Some coaches don’t feel it’s their job. Our coaches do feel it’s their job,” he said. “That’s just what we believe in and I think the kids growing up do notice it.”
One such kid was Mott Hyde. The baseball program has been so successful for so long, teenagers who now play were once the little kids idolizing the players and running around the bases.
Mott, who led the powerful Jackets’ offense this year with a .570 average and 20 homers, has grown up wanting to wear the Calhoun uniform.
“You grow up watching what guys like Whit and ... Brodie Pullen and Charlie Culberson did, and you want to follow their example,” said Mott, who has committed to continue his career at Georgia Tech. “I went to all the games and since then this is all I’ve wanted to do.”
