COVINGTON, Ga. — Eastside’s coaching search is over.
This week, the Eagles announced the hiring of Brandon Davis as the school’s next head baseball coach. Davis will take the reins from former head coach Brandon Crumbley, who stepped down to accept a head coaching job at Whitewater High following three seasons running the ship.
Davis comes over from Locust Grove, where he most recently helped coach baseball and softball. He has 14 years of experience as an assistant baseball coach, aiding dominant programs at Jones County and Heritage before his stint with the Wildcats.
Now, he’s ready to take ownership and blaze his own trail.
“As a 14-year veteran assistant coach, I saw an opportunity to finally do something on my own,” Davis said. “I’ve been around great coaches. I was under Barry Veal for eight years down at Jones County. I was with Shane Ramsey for a year at Heritage. I coached with coach [Stephen] Phillips for a year at Locust Grove.
“I think, at this time in my life, I’m at a place where I know where I want to be. And I can put 100% effort into it and do it the right way.”
Davis is a baseball lifer. His childhood was spend around diamonds, whether he was swinging a bat, watching his brother, Chris, do the same or attending a game his dad was umpiring.
He played out his prep baseball career at nearby Salem High in Rockdale County before spending two seasons on the team at Truett-McConnell in Cleveland, Georgia. Through decades of playing and coaching, Davis says, his passion for and understanding of the game continues to develop.
“It’s been like that beard you keep growing — it’s always there,” Davis said of baseball. “The love of the game, the learning, the constant analyzation of every single thing that happens. Whether it be a Braves game, whether it be a rec ball game, whether it be a high school game. Just being around the game itself.”
Davis says the first step in integrating himself into the Eastside program will be showing his face. He wants his players and staff to understand that he’s there and ready to join them in the trenches. He added that the preparation for the 2022 season will begin in the fall, not in the winter.
“Baseball season doesn’t start until January, but I’m going to be starting from the very beginning of school,” he said. “We’re going to have kids in the weight room. We’re going to go ahead and start getting our juniors and seniors some video portfolios that we can send out to college coaches so that they can see we’ve got these kids at Eastside, and they’re going to be able to play. I want to get those names out to those coaches and I want them to come and see how good we can be.”
As for the expectations he intends to set for the 2022 season, they’ll be the same as the ones he hopes to set every season going forward.
Title or bust.
“We’re not going to out there to say, ‘Oh, it was a great year because we made the state playoffs,’” Davis said. “No. Our expectations are, each and every year, to win a region championship and then compete for a state championship. Anything less than that, we’ve got to figure out why.”
