Boyd and Branch. Or call them Branch and Boyd.
Both are former baseball standouts at New Hope High School. Teammates, in fact. Branch then followed Boyd, a year older, to East Mississippi Community College where they were suite mates and again, teammates.
A decade later they mentored two different groups of teenagers this spring, watching Heritage Academy and New Hope High School exceed even their
expectations. And while both teams finished one playoff series short of reaching the state finals in their respective leagues, they outlasted nearly every other baseball squad in the area, transforming what should have been rebuilding seasons into seasons to remember.
For this, and the many ways they mentored the next generation of prep All-Stars, Branch and Boyd have been named Dispatch Baseball Co-Coaches of the Year.
“Who would have ever thought that 10 years after we played high school ball, that the two of us would be in the same area coaching baseball?” said Branch, a 2002 graduate of New Hope. “I feel right now, the two of us have two of the premier teams in the area. I would have never believed it.”
Boyd didn’t predict this either.
“But it is kinda neat to look over and see him coaching across the way,” he said.
From their coaching posts, they share quite a few coaching philosophies. And they should, both products of the same traveling
team, the same high school program, the same junior college.
They are coaches, of course. But also teachers – both on the diamond, in the locker room and in their school district’s classroom. They are grounderskeepers … who else do you think keeps the baseball field dressed up like an ornament?
Between the late winter and spring months, it seems as if in their spare time, they’re also husbands, financees and fathers. Much to the credit of a wife and girlfriend, they have found balance between their two worlds.
Both are great teachers and listeners, excelling at finding the right mixture of focus and fun in their message. They demand respect, but they give it too. Players know they don’t just care about them as players, but as people.
“More than just baseball, he teaches us about having pride and everything we do,” Heritage Academy sophomore Parker Dunaway said of Branch. “From the way we play the game and the attitude we have to the way we wear our uniforms.”
At New Hope, senior Kameron Bryan has watched Boyd follow the same creed.
“He’s probably the best coach I’ve played under,” Bryan said. “I felt like I could always talk to coach Boyd about everything. I could always tell him my point of view.”
Not everything about these guys are similar. Branch is more likely to argue a call with an umpire, complete with the game’s age-old theatrics. His complexion becomes as red as the Patriots jersey he wears. Boyd, meanwhile, is more of a laid-back, even quiet coach, preferring the subtle approach unless he feels his players are being cheated.
“My hair just turns grayer,” he said, laughing.
Branch likes to be aggressive on the bases. This season, when leadoff batter Tyler Farnham reached base, there was a high chance Branch was going to try to move him into scoring position.
And that base hit to the gap? Should be a double.
The Patriots were known for pushing their limits. Dunaway’s speed around the bags made infield singles a regular occurrence. Mathew Sykes, Tyler Marchak, James Clark, M. J. Hamrick and others also gave Heritage Academy a speedy, small-ball lineup. It’s this type of play that helped a team short on power hitters – Dispatch Baseball Player of the Year Austin Braddock excluded – start the season with 13 consecutive wins.
“He knew what it took to get a couple of runs across,” said Farham, a graduating senior. “He taught us what to do, he said that he had faith in us, that what needed to be done had to be done. I think that was a
major part of it.”
Eleven miles away, Boyd had to adjust his 2011 coaching strategy. One year earlier, New Hope relied on a senior-heavy team, allowing Boyd to also preach aggressiveness on the bases. The Trojans also enjoyed a dominant pitching staff and overall, more depth than they could utilize.
That meant the next batch of starters – seniors like Josh Grimes who spent previous seasons playing junior varsity and Taylor Stafford, a year removed from the eighth grade – were talented and would be great players one day. But this soon?
“The teams in the past have won,” Boyd explained, “and I think that motivates our kids to work harder. “But at the same time, I’m going to give my boys some credit. The talent is there.”
Like Heritage Academy, the New Hope Trojans started 2011 focused on small ball, drag bunting. Lots of times, Boyd said, they had to wait on two-out doubles.
At Heritage Academy, recent baseball teams spent spring break together, but at the beach.
Branch changed that this spring by sending his Patriots to the Smith-Wills Spring Break Classic in Jackson. And its not only their
performance during this stretch, which allowed the Patriots to win the tournament, but their willingness to give all they had and more than they ever had that led to the top seed in Class AAA, Division II.
“Our kids, our parents… you’d be amazed to know what the atmosphere was like around our baseball team,” Branch said. “That was truly amazing to see. No doubt it was something that hadn’t been done at Heritage Academy.”
At New Hope, Boyd didn’t know how good or how bad this season’s crop of players would be. Be he did witness what a difference an offseason, a weight room and some dedication can do to a group of players who a year earlier, weren’t good enough to unseed their senior leaders.
Stafford hit .365 and was tied with Dusty Dyson with a team-high five home runs. He also won five games with five saves. Boyd’s younger brother, Landon, a sophomore, earned his first varsity action on the mound, and transformed it into a 7-1 record. Jared Shelton’s average increased from .250 to .386. So did Bryan, who transferred from Neshoba Central in Philadelphia. After hitting .195 as a junior, he hit .420 this spring.
Boyd thought the 2011 Trojans would have been lucky if they hit six home runs – half of what they hit in 2010. All they did was more than double the previous season’s total (25).
“To me, that’s a just an attribute to those guys,” Boyd said. “They worked hard in the weight room in the offseason. They work hard on their own. And like I said, it’s not necessary a surprise. We have some great players. It’s just that those kids were young players and they put up better numbers (than expected).
“I wasn’t betting on it so soon.”
Bryan said the home runs were the biggest surprise of the season, including his three.
“We kinda knew that Dusty would hit four or five; he kind of had a home-run swing, either hit a home run or strike out,” Bryan said. “I figured Jared (Shelton) would get a couple, and even Zac Nagy, I figured he would get one or two. I thought I might hit one.
“But Stafford was the big surprise to everybody. He hit five, and one was off of (Southern Miss signee) Nick Johnson which is really… you just can’t ask for anything more than that.”
With the season over, Boyd is looking forward to July, the month that he can focus on his love for Allison, a former New Hope state champion slow-pitch softball player and basketball standout, as well as his high school sweetheart and now his wife.
It can be challenging to watch his daughter, Audrey, born in the middle of last season only to return to work one day later for a game.
There are plenty of nights when Boyd doesn’t get home until maybe 8 p.m., and Audrey, now 13 months old, is getting ready to go to bed.
“I think it balances itself out, so I don’t consider it a bad thing,” he said. “During the season, would I like to see them more? Yes. But I get to spend a lot of time with my family than somebody who has to work Monday through Friday all year long.”
Branch shares the same challenges. For him, it’
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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