Thirty-five years is a long time to commit to something. The dedication, perseverance, and commitment it takes to give that many years to a task is a remarkable achievement in and of itself. Being successful at doing something for thirty-five years is another marvel altogether.
During his tenure as a baseball coach, Manchester Academy’s Stacy Hester has amassed some major accomplishments including state championships and Coach of the Year honors, but perhaps no accomplishment is more fulfilling than the one he achieved last week when he entered rarefied air after winning his 1,000th career game.
“It’s a pretty amazing feeling. A lot of hard work, dedication, and development of some pretty good players over the last 35 seasons played a part in this accomplishment,” said Hester.
Hester, who entered the coaching ranks after playing at Delta State University for legendary Mississippi baseball coach Dave “Boo” Ferriss, attributes much of his success to his time spent as a Statesman under Ferriss.
“Playing for Coach Ferriss, you learned how to play the game the right way,” said Hester. “That led to a lot of his former coaches including myself having success as coaches because we knew the things to do to breed success. I guess I’m a dinosaur. I’ve been around a long time because I’ve never had the desire to do anything else but coach high school baseball. A lot of guys who started when I did have since gone on to do other things. I can remember former Mississippi State head baseball coach Ron Polk saying years ago that it was hard to recruit Mississippi kids because they didn’t really understand the game. I always remembered that and since then my goal has always been to try and help our kids get better at the game of baseball.”
Needless to say, in his 35-year career, Hester has done just that. With stints at private and public schools Washington, New Hope, Brandon, Central Hinds, Carroll, and now Manchester, Hester has seen a lot of things change in the game during that time.
“Two of the major differences between now and when I started are (one) that coaches are smarter and have learned a lot more about the game and (two), with so many distractions now-a-days, kids don’t have the retention skills they used to have and that makes them harder to teach,” said Hester. “We practice a lot on the fundamentals of hitting, catching, and throwing and we do them over, and over, and over, and over again. That can become boring at times and that makes it hard to keep these kids’ attention. But we try to make them understand that this is what it takes if you want to be successful.”
Hester continued, “Me being the type of hard worker that I am, I require a lot of focus and discipline from my players. My kids know that, and they don’t mind the discipline and focus that I require of them. It has translated into success here at Manchester. We’ve won 27, 35 and now 31 games this season. This year’s ending was not how we wanted it to end, but after moving up to 4A we were playing against tougher competition. But we still competed. Our finish this year doesn’t take away from what we have been able to accomplish as a program the past three years.”
Hester’s totals at Manchester include 93 wins, and 24 losses with a State Championship in 2023 and a Runner-Up finish in 2022. The 2023 title was Hester’s sixth to go along with titles at Washington in 1987 and 1988 and New Hope in 1996, 1998, and 2003. He is the only coach in Mississippi history to win state titles at three different schools and his ’96 New Hope team went 43-0, was the No.1 team in Mississippi and the No. 4 high school team in the nation.
A lot has changed over the years, not only in baseball, but life in general, and Hester is finding it more challenging to reach this latest generation of wanna-be ball players.
Said Hester, “There are so many distractions these days. Baseball is a game where you have to be able to retain so many things you are taught to carry over into a ballgame to have ultimate success. There are more things kids can do to achieve success nowadays. Back in the day there was football, basketball, baseball, and track. That was about it and track was used as training for one of those other major three. I realize that, in a way, it’s better because now there are more avenues for kids to make it (than just the Big 3) and you have things like Select Ball now that gives kids opportunities. One of the downsides of that, however, is kids begin to think they are entitled to play because they played Select Ball. Well, your parents pay for you to play Select Ball and then sometimes you take for granted that it takes putting in the work to make it on your high school team.”
“The bottom line is, if kids want to play and learn they have to do what a coach asks them to do, be dedicated and disciplined and a hard worker. Those are the qualities we are trying to build here at Manchester. I have some hard working kids and some hard working, dedicated coaches alongside me. It takes all of us working together as a team to achieve these accomplishments and I couldn’t do it without their support.”
If Hester continues to live and coach by the blueprint laid down to him by Coach Ferriss decades ago, I’m sure the next 35 years are sure to be just as rewarding.
