Shohn Doty is coming home.
The 1987 Springdale High graduate was named head baseball coach of his alma mater Thursday. He returns to his hometown after nearly two decades of coaching collegiately.
At A Glance
Shohn Doty
School: Springdale High
Position: Baseball coach
Notable: A 1987 Springdale graduate. … Has coached collegiately at five schools in 18 years, including most recently spending nine years as associate head coach at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. … Spent three years at UNC-Wilmington, including a season where his pitching staff ranked third in the nation in team ERA and had eight pitchers taken in the MLB Draft. … Recruited and coached Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander while at Old Dominion. … Uncle of Springdale pitcher and starting quarterback Fuller Chandler.
"You don't leave that part of the profession and go into the high school profession without having though through it a lot," Doty said. "The reality of it is Springdale is really, really important to me. All the good memories I have. I know Har-Ber is a great school and I'm excited to be a part of all the school system.
"But for me, there was no Har-Ber. There was just Springdale. Playing for coach (Jarrell) Williams and the sense of camaraderie with your teammates and the people in the community. And my goal is to bring that back to Springdale baseball and be a part of building that tradition back up."
Doty was chosen out of a pool of nearly 30 applicants for the position.
He has an extensive background of developing pitchers during his coaching career, which includes stops at five schools in 18 years. Most recently, he spent nine seasons as associate head coach at Arkansas-Fort Smith.
He had a two-year stint as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Indiana State, then spent three years in the same position at UNC-Wilmington, including a season in which his staff ranked third nationally in team ERA and included eight pitchers who would eventually be selected in the MLB Draft. He also recruited and coached AL Cy Young and MVP winner Justin Verlander during two years at Old Dominion.
Doty will inherit a Springdale program that fell on hard times under fellow Bulldog alum Billy Ray Rutledge. The program posted a 32-89 record with no state tournament appearances in Rutledge's five seasons before he resigned in May.
But Doty is confident he can turn the once-proud program around.
"Phase one of any program is we've got to get back to the development of our athletes," Doty said. "I think if we get back to the developmental side and really focus on that, people and students are going to take notice of that and we're going to have more athletes that are going to come out and want to be a part of it."
He'll have an opportunity to coach his nephew, Fuller Chandler, for two years. Chandler was a starting pitcher as a sophomore and is also the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs football team.
"I'm super excited to play for my uncle," Chandler said. "Living in different places, he's never had time to really coach me, but now I'm ecstatic that he does. I wouldn't want to play baseball for anyone else."
Doty is in the early stages of a process to hire an assistant coach and is approaching the search with an open mind.
"I would love to have another pitching guy to bounce things off of," Doty said. "But conversely, I'd also love to have an offensive guy that I could turn our hitters loose with at times when I'm not available to be there and know that they're getting the skills and drills they need to be successful.
"So I'm not necessarily in the market for a certain type of coach, other than a guy that's got an extensive background and feels comfortable coaching one area or the other. I feel like we can adjust our skill sets accordingly."
Sports on 07/18/2014