David Dinger is back in his familiar role of overseeing a Chattanooga area prep baseball program. Dinger has been named the new head coach at Heritage High School, where he had been an assistant the past four seasons. He takes over for Eric Beagles, who had been the only baseball coach in the school’s 15-year history, before resigning last week.
Beagles, who will remain at the school as an assistant principal, took the Generals to the playoffs in each of the past eight seasons and his 2017 and 2018 teams combined to win 59 games and reached the Class AAAA semifinals.
“Eric has built a great program,” Dinger said. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to take over at a place where the foundation is already solid. It also helps a lot that I’m getting to take over at a place where I already know the kids and the league we compete in.
“That’s a pretty big advantage over starting over at a new school because I’ve had time to adapt to the differences here from having coached in Tennessee for so long.”
A 1983 Lookout Valley High School graduate, Dinger was the head baseball coach at his alma mater for 23 seasons, guiding the Yellow Jackets to four Class A state tournament appearances. He stepped away from baseball to coach Lookout Valley’s middle and high school softball programs for seven years and also worked as the school’s head football coach as well as athletic director.
“I always knew I wanted to coach baseball again because I love the sport,” Dinger said. “When my daughter was in middle school I wanted to be able to spend that time with her, so I stepped away to coach her softball teams. I’m really grateful for how that worked out and also to Coach Beagles for giving me the chance to join his staff.
“Now I get the chance to coach baseball again at a place where it’s important.”
With 30 years of teaching and coaching experience in Tennessee, Dinger retired in that state in 2019 before making the move to work in Georgia at Heritage.
“We are very fortunate to have someone with Coach Dinger’s experience willing to take over the program,” said Heritage athletic director Eric Schexnaildre. “He has around 600 career wins and is a guy who has forgotten more baseball than most people, but he’s also someone that you can see that look in his eye that says he’s fired up to continue helping the program reach that next level.”
Staff photo by Danielle Moore/Chattanooga Times Free Press Coach David Dinger of the Lookout Valley High School Yellow Jackets during the playoff game against Marion County Tuesday night.