South Pittsburg High School has named Brian Paris as its new head baseball coach. Paris had been on staff for six years as an assistant and takes over for Wesley Stone, who is now coaching at Boyd-Buchanan.
"I've always wanted to see what I can do as a head coach, and it means a lot to get that chance with a program that I've been with and helped rebuild already," Paris said. "I really appreciated [South Pittsburg principal] Danny Wilson and [athletic director] Vic Grider for trusting me with the job.
"It's a new challenge in my life, and I'm very excited and anxious to get started."
Paris, a 1994 Marion County graduate, played at Middle Tennessee State University and began his coaching career at Marion, where he helped that program claim five district and five region championships in six years.
In six season with South Pittsburg, spent as pitching coach, he helped the Pirates claim three region tournament championships and reach the Class A state tournament twice.
"It was a big deal for us to find somebody who knows the game really well first off," Grider said. "We've been as successful as anybody for the past few years, and we wanted to make sure we kept the program going in that direction. We feel like we got all of that, plus Brian knows the kids really well from having worked with them for a while. To use a baseball term, we hit a home run with this hire."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.