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Columbia coach Brian Thomas looks on during the Tigers’ game against on March 3. (BRENT KUYKENDALL/Lake City Reporter)
Before every season, Columbia’s baseball players come up with team goals as well as personal goals.
The same goes for Brian Thomas, who eyed a milestone heading into his fourth year as the Tigers’ head coach. Following a 4-4 start to the season, Thomas was just three wins away from 300 in his 17-year career.
Then schools were closed and athletics were suspended until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic. With so much uncertainty surrounding sports and no guarantee they’ll even return this spring, Thomas has begun to realize win No. 300 may no longer be in the cards in 2020.
It’s been emotional for Thomas, who envisioned reaching that number with his son, Hunter, in his senior season.
“Just wish it could happen with Hunter on the field,” Thomas said.
Hunter is also part of Thomas’ first graduating class at Columbia, which includes four more seniors. He also wants to reach 300 wins with them on the field as well.
“This whole group of seniors have a special place in my heart,” Thomas said.
So would win No. 300. Thomas’ coaching career began in 1984 when Buck Hardee hired him as an assistant at New Hanover High School in Wilmington, N.C., and Thomas credits Hardee for helping mold him into the coach he is today.
Hardee was a storied coach in North Carolina, posting a 396-133-1 record with 13 conference championships at New Hanover in 24 seasons that eventual led to his induction in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1994. On top of that, Hardee was also the head coach of Wilmington’s Legion Post 10 baseball team from 1959-1984, compiling a 524-267-3 record that included five state titles and two runner-up finishes.
That stellar record is also why Hardee is in the American Legion Baseball Hall of Fame. Hardee has been the measuring stick for Thomas ever since his first head coaching gig in 1988, when he replaced Hardee following his retirement.
“As corny as it sounds and as sappy as it sounds, it’s a very personal thing to me,” Thomas said. “I’ve always told people I want to be half the coach that Buck was, so that number to me holds value to me.”
Before going on to play college baseball at East Tennessee State, Thomas played at Hoggard High School in Wilmington, N.C., which just happened to be New Hanover’s big rival. Hoggard got the best of Hardee’s club a few times when Thomas was a player, eventually leading to Hardee wanting to bring Thomas aboard as an assistant coach when he graduated from East Tennessee State.
In fact, when Thomas left college he was working for New Hanover County Parks and Rec, helping design new baseball fields. He was actually hired on one of the fields that would eventually be named after Hardee.
There was a connection between the two from that day on, up until Hardee passed away in 2005. Hardee gave Thomas his first coaching shot and he’s been incredibly thankful to the man that took a chance on him.
“I’ll never forget sitting in the office the day he hired me and he said, ‘Look, we couldn’t beat you so we had to figure out a way to get you over here,’” Thomas said. “He was a dad to all the coaches. He had a fatherly way about him. We were at his house, we were fishing, we were hunting and his family became our family and vice versa and that’s kind of how I’ve tried to coach.
“Some people don’t like the way I coach and that’s fine. That’s their prerogative. They have a right to feel how they want to feel about coaches and if we’re pulling the right strings. But the stuff they don’t know behind the scenes is I do what I do for the kids but also to pay honor to Buck for giving me the opportunity.”
Thomas spent four years as the head coach at New Hanover before moving south to Pembroke Pines to coach at Pine Crest. After two seasons there, he took over as head coach at Nease until 2016 when he switched over to Columbia.
Since arriving in Lake City, Thomas has posted a 48-43 record in three-plus seasons including three straight district titles. He wants a shot at his fourth and for his five seniors to ride off into the sunset with the school’s streak still intact, a streak now at five dating back to 2015.
The Florida High School Athletic Association still hasn’t decided if the spring sports seasons will return. All athletics in the state were suspended indefinitely after Gov. Ron DeSantis closed schools through at least April 15.
Seniors may have played their final game and not even know it yet. Thomas is hoping that isn’t the case for his son and his four other seniors, and he’s hoping win No. 300 still comes this spring.
“I’m just as heartbroken as the kids are from a personal standpoint because this year may not hold the cards for me to do that,” Thomas said. “And I know it’s selfish, but again, that’s one of those selfish goals.”