Tattnall names baseball boss Hiller as new athletics director

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Joey Hiller sat in the assistant athletics directors office at Tattnall one recent Friday night, and admitted that yes, he’d like to move.

          Next door, to the athletics director’s office of Todd Whetsel.

          And he is.

          Whetsel announced his resignation as Tattnall’s AD and head girls basketball coach back around the start of the basketball season, only a few weeks after the Trojans’ highly successful baseball and softball head coach added the title of assistant AD to his duties.

          But the 46-year-old admitted earlier this month that he was interested in moving up.

          “I realized I wanted the job,” he said.

          Former AD and head football coach –and at one time, head of school – Barney Hester hired Hiller for the 1997-98 school year, and Hiller succeeded Larry Dudney as head baseball coach a year later.  

          Hiller also coached on Hester’s football staff during a stretch of four GISA state titles and two runner-up seasons.

          “Six years around Barney Hester … molded me into the baseball and softball coach that I am,” said Hiller, who entered this baseball season 533-126 and ended the softball season at 407-154. “He showed me and taught me what the athletic culture of this place was all about, what works, what doesn’t work.

          “Sometimes, it was more of a hesitant ‘yes sir.’ ”

          Hiller graduated from Stratford after transferring from Central, attended Middle Georgia (back then, a junior college) and graduated from Columbus State. He was drafted twice, by Atlanta in 1990’s 49th round and by Milwaukee in 1994’s 18th round, and spent a year in pro ball.

          The timing of moves in the fall were of some note.

          Hiller was interested in the assistant AD job that went to boys basketball head coach Jarvis Smith a few years ago, a decision that Hiller admitted frustrated him a little.

          “That hurt my feelings a little bit,” he said. “I felt like I had been here, paid my dues.

          “But Jarvis deserved it. Great guy, great leadership.”

          In the fall, Smith took over as dean of students, and this time, Hiller got it. Shortly thereafter, Whetsel was in talks with the Georgia Independent Christian Athletic Association.

            Suddenly, Whetsel announced that he was leaving.

            “It’s funny,” Hiller said. “A lot of people ask me if, when I was named assistant AD, did I already know that Todd was leaving. The answer to that is absolutely not.”

            Only a short time in his new job, Hiller started thinking about a move up. Tattnall cut off applications on Feb. 1, and decided on Hiller last week, with the announcement Monday morning.

            He met twice with a leadership panel in less than a week, and then was called in by headmaster John Hankinson.

            “I figured it was going to be a good talk or a bad talk,” Hiller said with a chuckle. “It was a good talk.”