High school notebook: Howard's Slaughter retires, GHSA-Braves baseball agreement, Chastain approved at Jones County

By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Slaughter calls it a day at Howard

          Howard has had only one head baseball coach since its inception.

          Time to look for the second.

          What Danny Slaughter told his team less than two weeks ago became official his week, that the end of the Huskies' season was the end of his career as their coach.

          "I've been contemplating it for awhile," the graduate of Westover-Albany said. "It's hard to pull the trigger."

          Slaughter is in his 31st year in public education, and 30 is the magic number for retirement benefits in Georgia. Thus, the meeting he attended with open ears.

          "My benefits weren't really going to get better if I waited to retire," said Slaughter, wryly hinting that he's not done coaching. "The stars kind of aligned. But it was a really tough decision. Really tough."

          The 57-year-old has been doing double duty for the last few years, as head coach of baseball and softball, although the sound of all that pinging may have had an effect on his memory.

          "Oh, shoot, four years maybe," he said of how long he's led the softball program. "Five? I was the assistant with Kevin Adams one year, and then I took over after he became principal at (Howard Middle School)."

          Slaughter has degrees from ABAC (two associates), Georgia Southwestern, and Cambridge.

          Slaughter spent 15 years at Macon County, getting his coaching career in full swing after spending time as a parole officer, which came after a stint at Monroe in Albany. There was also another gig.

          "I thought the grass was greener on the other side, and somebody told me I could make a lot of money selling chemicals," he said. "And I found out I couldn't really sell anything."
          He came to Howard from Macon County when Bobby Hughes made that move as head football coach and athletics director upon the school's opening.

          The baseball team got off to a good start when the school opened, beginning a run of postseason trips that has slowed in recent year.

          Along the way, they finally got a home baseball field, ending a stint as a wayward team that played, at times, at the West Macon Sports Complex off Thomaston Road.

          Slaughter has a serious masochistic streak, more than the average high school educator. In addition to coaching baseball and softball and helping out with football, he's welcomed another level of abuse as a college baseball umpire for 23 years, from junior college to Division I, and a wrestling official.

          "The best of both worlds," Slaughter said with a laugh.

          The Huskies finished 11-19 in baseball this spring, and lost nine games by three runs or less.

          His record? He doesn't know much, except that he has more than 200 wins in softball and 300 wins in baseball. He was in the dark himself about the Ws until his wife of three years spilled the beans.

          "No one would have known I had 300 wins if she hadn't have told everybody," Slaughter said. "That's something I never really kept up with."

          His final baseball season is done, but he said it was enjoyable nonetheless.

          "The Spalding series and the Upson-Lee series, we didn't play that well," he said of two early-April matchups. "But they were full of energy and they played hard."

Braves announce agreement with GHSA

          Some of the GHSA baseball finals will be in fairly fancy environs.

          Like SunTrust Park, Coolray Field in Lawrenceville and State Mutual Park in Rome.

          The Atlanta Braves made official a partnership with the GHSA, which executive director Robin Hines unveiled on Monday at the group's executive committee meeting.

          The Class 7A series will be at SunTrust - the four semifinalists last two years were from metro Atlanta.

          Two classifications will play at State Mutual in Rome, with Coolray Field hosting a classification. Because of obligations, SunTrust would host a third game from Coolray.

          Luther Williams Field will host two championship series, as will Grayson Park in Savannah. One class is at Luther Williams on May 20 with another on May 21. The “if” games will be on May 23 at 5 p.m. and afterward. Luther Williams was to host last year, but renovations weren’t complete in time, and the Class A Private series, won by Tattnall, was played at Mercer’s OrthoGeorgia Park.

          The matchups and pairings will be announced several days before the finals.

          The connection includes yearly clinics at SunTrust, plus a series in April with eight teams playing at SunTrust. On Friday, Mary Persons played Upson-Lee at Sun Trust.

          Last year's Class A Private series, won by Tattnall, was played at Mercer's OrthoGeorgia Park because renovations at Luther Williams weren't completed in time for the games.

Chastain official at Jones County

          The Jones County Board of Education approved Mike Chastain as the Greyhounds’ new head football coach Friday morning at a called meeting.

          Athletics director Barry Veal interviewed and hired Chastain on Wednesday, less than two days after Justin Rogers was approved as Colquitt County's new head coach.

          Spring practice will be delayed as Chastain gets settled and starts working on a staff. Thus, the spring game with Peach County has been canceled, according to the Jones County News.