EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a series counting down the area’s top 12 prep dynasties of the past 50 years.
The memories come flooding back to Chip Henderson when he’s asked what stood out about his Calhoun High School baseball teams.
Now retired, Henderson won 622 games in 27 seasons as head coach at his alma mater, and 25 of those teams reached the playoffs. Three of them won GHSA state championships and two others finished second.
Those five teams were part of a magical run by the Yellow Jackets from 2000 to 2010, when they averaged nearly 30 wins a season behind some of the best individual talent the greater Chattanooga area has ever produced, including nine Major League Baseball draftees.
More than the wins and trophies and heartbreaking losses, it’s the memories of that time that mean the most to Henderson.
“Well, baseball had always been THE sport at Calhoun long before I took over,” Henderson said. “The program has always had tremendous community support, and kids who grew up wanting to play baseball at Calhoun. Calhoun had won a state title in 1974, and when I took over in 1995, we started getting some kids from the players in the ’70s, and by the time 2000 came around, we just hit another level.”
In 2000, when Georgia’s regions qualified only two teams for the playoffs, Calhoun lost to Lovett with the region championship on the line and had to play each postseason round — at private schools — on the road.
“Looking back, there’s always a round where you need a big break and just have to survive, and for us in 2000 it was at Pacelli in Columbus,” Henderson said. “They beat us game one by one run, and in game two we were down a run in the seventh with runners on second and third. Matt Robbins hit a high fly ball to left field, and I remember thinking that was it.
“However, their left fielder was so fast — we couldn’t get him out — that he overran the ball and we scored two runs to win it. The next day we were leading 13-7 entering the bottom of the seventh, but we couldn’t get them out. All of a sudden it’s 13-10, 13-11, then 13-12 and they had the bases loaded. Jon Robbins came on and induced a ground ball, and we got a forceout at second to end it.
“That was the most physically and mentally draining series I ever went through.”
The Jackets traveled to Lovett for the Class A title series and exacted revenge by sweeping the Lions. It would be a rivalry that was just getting started.
“You knew somewhere down the road Lovett and Calhoun would match up somewhere,” Henderson said with a laugh. “Some days they got the best of us, and some days we got the best of them. It was a mutual respect on both sides.”
Staff file photo by Robin Rudd / Former Calhoun coach Chip Henderson has lots of good memories from his time leading the baseball program at his alma mater, with his tenure including three GHSA state championships.The 2005 title team was Henderson’s most dominant, going 33-1 and sweeping its way through the Class AA postseason behind super sophomore pitchers Josh Smoker and Brodie Pullen. Smoker threw two no-hitters, another shutout and struck out 15 batters in a 2-1 win over Buford in the semifinals — the left-hander’s only earned run of the season. In the title series, Smoker threw five scoreless innings against Westside-Augusta and earned a save in the same game after the bullpen nearly blew a 8-0 lead.
The 2010 Class AA championship series may be the most memorable in Calhoun history. The Jackets, after sweeping Lovett in the semifinals, carried a 33-0 record into the title series against Cook in Adel, but it was the Hornets who had the state’s top ranking and featured Kaleb Cowart and D.J. Johnson, who would both be drafted that summer, with Cowart a first-round pick.
As the temperature hovered near 100 degrees and rowdy Cook fans packed the stadium — some in hastily-built tree stands beyond the outfield fence — the Hornets dominated the first game as Johnson shut down the Jackets and Calhoun ace Carter Harrison was hit hard.
Cook led 3-1 in the second game before Calhoun’s Zach Bradley hit a dramatic three-run homer in the seventh inning to win it and force a third game.
“We were one inning away from being swept, and out of those 14 innings that day, we were behind in 13,” Henderson said. “I tell you, a key was Carter Harrison in game one. He was getting hit hard, and I asked him to take one for the team and he never batted an eye and finished it. Guess who wanted to close out game three?”
Landon Curtis, in his first start of the postseason, allowed two runs and struck out seven batters in five innings, and Harrison went the final two innings in an 8-2 win.
“Man, it seems like yesterday,” Henderson said. “I remember Carter finishing that game with a vengeance and just the feeling of accomplishment.
“It was a special time during that run. It wasn’t just the times we won it. You look back over that time period at some of the teams we had and losing to teams like Cartersville, Lovett, Toombs County and Holy Innocents’ — it seems the years we didn’t win it, we got beat by the eventual state champions.
“I take a lot of pride to be a part of what we accomplished. It wasn’t anything I did. We had great players, great coaches and tremendous community support. You have to have those things to be special.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com.
READ MORE: DYNAMITE DOZEN PREP DYNASTIES
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