Baylor School’s perennial powerhouse on the baseball diamond will have the chance to keep rolling under familiar leadership.
Greg Elie, who has been on staff with the Red Raiders since 2016, will remain in charge of the program as its sole head coach after sharing that role with Mike Kinney the past seven seasons. Last week, Kinney announced his resignation from his position as co-coach in order to spend more time with his family.
Elie’s time in charge has already yielded a 146-39 overall record (a winning percentage of .789), and the Red Raiders became the area’s first baseball program to win three consecutive TSSAA state titles when they were the Division II-AA champions in 2018, 2019 and 2021. In 2020, the TSSAA suspended and then canceled the season for all spring sports programs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with no state titles awarded.
“I love where I am at,” said Elie, a native of Bradenton, Florida, who played college baseball as an outfielder for Tennessee Wesleyan in nearby Athens, where he earned NAIA All-America honorable mention in 2005 and 2006. “Baylor is an amazing place and a great builder of young men and women. They strive for greatness here, no matter whether it is baseball, football, the arts or academics.”
Baylor has won seven consecutive region titles in baseball, and in the same stretch, the Red Raiders have produced 26 collegiate players (including five All-Americans), four consecutive Tennessee Mr. Baseball award winners and two Gatorade state players of the year.
In 2021, Cooper Kinney, Mike’s son, became Baylor’s first player selected in the opening round of the Major League Baseball draft. Danny Corona, another former Red Raiders star, was picked in the 16th round of that same draft.
Three former players are expected to go in the top 100 picks when this year’s draft takes place in July: Wake Forest’s Nick Kurtz, Tennessee’s Christian Moore and recent Baylor graduate Tomas Valincius, whose senior season included becoming the first Red Raider to repeat as a Mr. Baseball selection. Kurtz and Moore are projected to go in the first round next month, while two more Baylor alumni — Henry Ford and Henry Godbout, who helped Virginia reach the College World Series this year — have been tabbed as two of college baseball’s top prospects for the 2025 draft.
Baylor’s success under Elie’s direction also includes an 18-5 record against Chattanooga rival McCallie, which was the DII-AA champion in 2022.
“Our administration has the utmost confidence that Coach Elie and his staff will continue to foster the high level of success that the program has enjoyed for the last several seasons,” Baylor athletic director Mark Price wrote in an email Thursday announcing Elie’s status as sole head coach. “Greg is fully committed to the continued growth and development of our student-athletes.”
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.