Lee Looks To Build On Success Of Baseball Program

Lee Looks To Build On Success Of Baseball Program

By David Howell

Editor

WATER VALLEY – After serving five years as assistant baseball coach at Water Valley High School, Jeb Lee was hired last week to lead the baseball program as head coach. Lee brings 11 seasons of coaching experience to the position and his new job notches a career goal for him. In fact, Lee recalls when he first interviewed with the school district to work as an assistant coach under Kary Bridges in 2011, he explained his goal was to serve as a high school head baseball coach.

But now as he steps into the position Lee also has an even stronger ambition, to build a baseball program that will garner respect at the state level.

“My vision is that when people think of high school baseball in Mississippi, they will think of Water Valley,” Lee explained. “That doesn’t happen over night, it’s a long term process. We have a great foundation that goes back to Doug Robbins.  Coach Bridges and I worked to build on that,” Lee told the Herald last week after accepting the job.

And while the wins and losses help tell the story, Lee also emphasizes the facilities and community support are also important to a baseball program – factors that Water Valley offers.

“We played a very competitive schedule this past year and everywhere we went our facilities were as good or better than any school we visited,” Lee explained. He cites the strong booster club and alumni for helping with the facilities, which have continued to expand during the last five years with the addition of an indoor facility, a new locker room and new press box that accompany a first-class ball field. 

“It’s been an ongoing effort and this is one of the beauties that has drawn me to this town and to this community, people love to pitch in,” Lee explained. “That is what I want to build on.”

Equally as important to Lee is the community has been a fit for his family that includes his wife of seven years, Alice Anne Lee, a dietician at Yalobusha Health Services, and his 18 month-old daughter, Julie Anne Lee. After moving from Brandon, Lee said it wasn’t long before Water Valley felt like home.

“We have been here five years, we have roots here,” Lee explained. He describes the small-town atmosphere as similar to Simpson County, where he grew up. He enjoys the outdoors, hunting and fishing, which helped him bond with members of the community.

“I learned crappie holes here are guarded information. In Simpson County, someone may not take you to their best deer stand but they would share their crappie hole. Here it is the exact opposite,” Lee joked. But these hobbies have been on the back burner due to a rigorous work schedule in recent years that included teaching as many as five classes while serving assistant baseball coach and an assistant coach on the football field, a work ethic that has not gone unnoticed. 

  “He has worked his way up in this program and is taking the next step,” explained Water Valley High School head football coach and soon-to-be athletic director Brad Embry.  “In a strong athletic program that is what you do,” Embry added. “You want guys that want to move up. You want guys that are willing to work and go the extra mile to build their careers and move their careers forward. You want people that have goals,” Embry continued.

Lee is also excited that the baseball program will have more depth in the coaching department with the addition of Dexter Ross as junior high baseball coach. In the past, Bridges and Lee have juggled junior high and high school baseball. He is also looking forward to working with Patrick “Tip” Nutt, who was hired as his replacement as assistant baseball and football coach.

“When his name came up, I was excited. I thought he would be a good fit,” Lee added. Nutt is coming from Winona, where he worked as head baseball coach for the last three years. 

Water Valley High School Principal Drew Pitcock is confident that the new hires will be strong for the baseball program. 

“I coached against Jeb for eight years, we are excited about what he brings to the program,” Pitcock, a former coach at Grenada High School, told the Herald. 

Bridges is also confident that Lee will continue the success of the program.

“He works hard and will do a great job as head coach. He is also a good person, the type guy that you want to be around your kids,” Bridges said. 

Coaching History

After playing baseball at Simpson County Academy, Lee spent two years playing at the collegiate level at Copiah Lincoln Community College before attending Mississippi State University. During his senior year as a Bulldog, Lee got his first coaching experience as an intern at Columbus, coaching with Kent Farrish who was later credited as the second winningest headman at Northeast Mississippi Community College with 212 victories in nine seasons. 

“Coaching with Farrish was a very valuable experience for a new coach,” Lee said.

Immediately after graduating from Mississippi State, Lee took a job at Brandon High School as head ninth grade baseball coach and assistant high school coach, a position he held for five years. Lee fondly recalls that Neill Bartling, his former high school coach who had since moved to Brandon as head coach, made the job offer.

During the last 18 months at Brandon, Lee worked alongside Bridges, who was an assistant coach there before coming to Water Valley High School. 

“From the day he got hired, he started calling me, asking if I would be willing to come to Water Valley,” Lee recalled, adding the five years coaching experience with Bridges have also been key in his career.

“God just sort of led us in this direction. I came up, interviewed and enjoyed it,” Lee said. 

Now five years later as head coach, Lee acknowledges that his first year will bring a challenge with only two seniors and three juniors on the rosters.

“We are going to start a bunch of young kids. My message to them all summer has been to compete. Don’t worry about the scoreboard, you compete and you keep fighting. If we can build that mentality, wins and losses will take care of themselves,” Lee added.

Wins and losses aside, for Lee the most humbling experience in the promotion has been the outpouring support from past, present and future players and parents and even people in the community who do not have direct connections to the baseball program.

“It has been humbling, I will never have the words to express how much this means to me,” Lee said.