Jason Cobb knew he was going to have to make a decision.
Faced with a choice of remaining a teacher and a coach or getting into administration, Cobb was focused on finding a better situation for his family.
So when he learned Columbus” Severstal, the fourth largest integrated steel company in the United States, was planning to expand, he sent in a résumé and hoped he would catch a break.
On Monday, things worked out like Cobb could have hoped, as he accepted a job to work in Severstal”s shipping department. He will start Aug. 1.
Cobb”s decision leaves Hamilton High in need of an assistant slow-pitch and a head fast-pitch softball coach.
“It is just an advancement in pay for me and my family,” Cobb said. “It is kind of strange because (his new job) starts the same time I would have had to gone back for the school year.”
Cobb spent the past five years as an assistant coach to Lewis Earnest with Hamilton”s slow-pitch team. He helped lead the Lions to a Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 2A state title in 2009. He also helped establish Hamilton as one of the state”s top fast-pitch programs.
Prior to his work at Hamilton, Cobb worked for six years as coach at Caledonia High and one year each at Cleveland High and Houston High. In 2004, he guided the Caledonia High”s fast-pitch softball team to a Class 3A state championship. He said there were numerous high points and memories in a coaching career that he often shared with his wife, Cory.
But Cobb said there were too many positives about working at Severstal, where his brother in law is employed, to pass up.
“I was at a crossroads,” Cobb said. “As our kids get older and they get more expensive, I knew there were not a lot of advancements in pay that I was going to be able to get (if he remained employed as a teacher and as a coach), and that had a lot to do with it.
“There are no hard feelings or disappointment from my time in Hamilton. It is just a career move to better my family.”
Earnest, who also is the head coach for Hamilton”s baseball team, said he will miss Cobb because the two got along so well together. He said he enjoyed Cobb”s sense or humor and ability to mix that with a seriousness that earned the respect of his players.
“He gets after it and works hard,” Earnest said. “He doesn”t forget anything – anything. He is serious with the girls and wants to have fun and has always done a good job with that. … I hate to see him go.
“The Caledonia girls that I have seen and the parents I have seen and heard from, I have never heard anybody say they didn”t like or wish they still had him. I am sure it will be the same way when he leaves. We”re going to wish we still had him. The girls liked him, respected him, and he treated them well. He always stood up and fought for his girls when he had to. He is a good coach, a good teacher, and he is a father to his children and he knows how to treat other peoples” children, which means a lot. He can look at things from a parent”s perspective, but when he had to be firm with the kids or their parents he has been able to do that.”
Cobb hopes to stay active in coaching his children as they move up through the age group levels of baseball and softball. Until he returns to the field, he will take pride in the relationships he formed with players, coaches, and parents. He especially enjoys a recent encounter with Anna Miller, a former player at Caledonia High. Miller told Cobb she now uses some of the sayings he used with the team in her classroom.
“I have players that I coaches from years ago that still call me today or see me at times and still want to hug my neck,” Cobb said. “All of the rings and stuff, they”re an amazing part of all of it. But the most special part is the bonds I have made over the years and the lifelong relationships.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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