Wes Caldwell will return to head coaching duties at the high school level for the first time since leading Greenback to the TSSAA Class A baseball state championship in 2019.
Caldwell, who has 351 career wins in high school baseball over two decades, has been hired by Dalton, the Georgia school announced this week.
He will take over a program that most recently reached 20-plus wins in 2016, when Cole Shelton and J.P. Tighe starred as the Catamounts posted 25 victories and reached the GHSA Class AAAAAA quarterfinals before being eliminated by eventual state champ Pope. Dalton had a losing record this past season and missed the Class AAAAA playoffs.
According to a Dalton Public Schools release, Caldwell has had 64 former players go on to play college or pro baseball during his time spent as a head coach at Tennessee’s Rhea County (1996-2010), Lookout Valley (2012-14) and Greenback (2018-19). He also has won five region championships and has been to the state semifinals three times.
“Baseball has been a part of my life since I could walk straight,” Caldwell said. “The game has done so much for my life, and I had some coaches who were very influential. Coaching these guys makes me feel young. There is nothing better than to see them get better and realize their potential on and off the field.”
After helping Greenback win a pair of state championships, which included serving as an assistant football coach for the 2017 Cherokees who went 13-1 on their way to the title, Caldwell returned to Chattanooga to help assist longtime friend Brian Hitchcox at Ooltewah.
This past spring he was an assistant baseball coach for 2022 TSSAA Division II-AA state champion McCallie, which was joined by Silverdale Baptist and Walker Valley as the only Chattanooga-area baseball teams to advance to the Spring Fling state tournament this year.
Caldwell has also seen the game at several different levels, including during his time as an assistant coach at Cleveland State Community College and Tennessee Wesleyan. In 2014, he founded Hustle Baseball, and he still runs the Chattanooga-based select program, which will host a July 8 showcase at AT&T Field that will allow players to be seen by several area college coaches.
“I am fired up to be Dalton’s baseball coach,” Caldwell said. “They had a lot of younger guys get quality playing time last year, and they have a lot of potential.”
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.