Tommy Morrell has coached football. He’s coached basketball.
Until now, however, he’s never coached baseball.
Morrell is the new Grace Baptist diamond coach and the only stipulation he had for taking the job was for the school’s administration to get a baseball-minded person to help him.
“They sure did that,” Morrell said Thursday.
The person who will be Morrell’s right-hand man is former big league pitcher Stephen Pryor, who spent parts of three seasons (2012-14) with the Seattle Mariners from 2012-14 and was part of a six-pitcher no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012.
“Stephen is the baseball guy and I’m the organizer and administrator type guy,” said Morrell, who coached football and basketball at Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe before joining the Eagles’ football staff in 2015 as defensive coordinator -- he is still an elementary school teacher in Catoosa County.
“I’ve got the head coach title and that’s nice and a great experience,” Morrell said. “I coach people and the kids and the folks at Grace think I’m pretty good at that. Stephen is going to try to make us the best baseball team we can be.”
Morrell said Pryor was recommended by a Grace parent. Also, Morrell and Pryor at one time attended the same church.
Pryor was receptive to the idea of coaching the Eagles and the school worked out deals with Morrell and Pryor in about the same time frame.
But, questions about game-day duties still have to be ironed out.
Who will coach third base? Who will make pitching changes? Who will argue with umpires?
Morrell thinks he has most of those answers.
“Stephen is the baseball man and he’s going to make those decisions,” Morrell said. “I’m the guy that will handle all the unattractive stuff, which I’m good at. I won’t bug him about the budget, but I’m defaulting to him on most baseball stuff.”
During the football season several Grace players, who also play baseball, were voicing concerns about the fate of the diamond program. They did not know who would be coaching the team in 2016 and that bothered them.
Morrell approached Les Compton, the school’s athletic director, and asked what was going on with baseball.
Compton responded by saying he was trying to find someone to coach the team.
“I said if he ran out of options I could probably coach baseball,” Morrell said. “I’ll have to talk to my wife first. Les said, ‘Have you ever coached baseball before.’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘How does that solve my problem?’ I said, ‘You’ll have to find a baseball guy to be my assistant.’
“Our football season ended on a Friday and on Monday I got word that Les wanted to talk to me about the baseball job. That afternoon I had an offer to coach the team.”
Morrell and Pryor will put the Eagles through their first practice on Feb. 15. The Eagles will host Notre Dame at 6 p.m. on March 14 in the season opener and then three days later take part in Hixson’s Wildcat Classic.
Pryor attended Friendship Christian High School in Lebanon, Tenn., moved on to Cleveland State and finally to Tennessee Tech University. He was a fifth-round pick by the Mariners in 2010 and made his major league debut against the Chicago White Sox on June 10, 2010.
The 6-foot-4-inch right-hander appeared in 34 big league games, 26 in the 2012 season when he was 3-1 with a 3.91 ERA.
On June 8, Pryor, then a 22-year-old rookie, was the third of six pitchers that would no-hit the Dodgers in a 1-0 victory and picked up the win.
While Pryor did not record a save, he finished 10 games and threw 32 career innings.
First up for the new coaches will be Grace’s first season leadoff coaches clinic on Saturday at the school – located at the corner of Shallowford Road and Jenkins Road from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cost is $25 per coach and the clinic is open to local recreation, middle and high school coaches. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
The scheduled guest speakers are McCallie coach Greg Payne, East Hamilton coach Steve Garland, Pryor, retired coach Danny Carter, David Crownover and pro scout Stan Teem.
Payne and Morrell are both LFO graduates.
“I’ve talked to Greg several times since I took the Grace job,” Morrell said. “He’s a really good baseball coach who cares about the kids he coaches and wants them to succeed. Crownover will speak about parents who go through the recruiting process with their kids. Carter will speak about a coach’s relationship with his players. Stephen is going to talk about pitching and Teem will speak about what scouts look for in a player.”
For more information on the clinic, call 423-892-8224 and ask for Stephanie Billingsley or e-mail coachtommymorrell@gmail.com.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)