The Eagles have found their new skipper, and it's a familiar face.

On May 23, Eastside announced former assistant Shane Griffin as the school’s next head baseball coach.

Griffin, a 2014 Eastside graduate, joined the staff as an assistant coach in 2017. After he stepped away from the program in 2021, Griffin rejoined the staff for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.

As he now prepares to join the staff as the lead man in 2025, Griffin spoke about his excitement with the opportunity.

“I am really excited,” Griffin said. “As you know I have been around the program in and out for about a decade now. So to be able to take the reins over is very exciting. I know this is a good, young group in the program and a lot of the [upcoming] seniors were there when I first started coaching in the program. I am looking forward to working with them again and just getting back on the baseball field.”

In the years that Griffin was not an assistant for the Eagles, he was still making an impact on the game.

Whether it was coaching as an assistant on Eastside’s softball team, coaching travel ball, American Legion or Team Elite, Griffin has been around the game of baseball for years.

During his time as a student, Griffin played for the Eagles’ program.

“Played at Eastside, and kind of went straight into coaching straight out of high school,” Griffin said. “I coached my brother’s travel ball team when they were nine and 10 and kind of ran for two or three years before I went into high school.”

As a coach, Griffin described his style as a mix of different generations of the game.

“I am a mix of old school with the new school,” Griffin said. “I am big on discipline and creating more responsibilities for the players and preparing them for the next step in life. Not just molding baseball players, but molding great human beings.”

Griffin will take over an Eastside team that is set to return the majority of the roster in 2025 after a 8-19 finish.

A year prior with Griffin on the staff, the Eagles made it to the first round of the Class AAAAA playoffs before falling to the top-seeded Villa Rica.

With a young core, Griffin already expects them to take a step up after seeing the field quite often last season.

“I feel like they’ll grow anyways just from experience,” Griffin said. “They were young, had a lot of freshmen playing innings. Lots of experience gained for them and things they learned that will carry over into next season.”

Since he was a previous assistant on the staff, Griffin is already familiar with many of the seniors for next season and is eager to hit the field.

“I am sure the older kids are excited to get back out there too,” Griffin said. “I know seniors Chase Jordan, Parker Denmark, Rylan Roper and Payton Shaw — they were all on that playoff team two years ago where we went down to Villa Rica. I am sure they want to get back to that kind of experience.”