Bobby Howard takes job as head coach of old Columbus High rival

Hall of Fame baseball coach Bobby Howard on Thursday accepted the job as head coach at Cartersville High School, he confirmed.

In 39 seasons as a head baseball coach, Howard’s teams have compiled a 985-296 record. That is a winning percentage of more than 78 percent, and his teams have won 12 Georgia High School Association state titles. Another eight times his teams finished second in the state, amassing 29 region titles in the process.

Howard, 66, knows the Cartersville baseball program well. During a nine-year stretch starting in 2002, the two schools met six times in the state playoffs.

In 2002, Cartersville eliminated Columbus in a single game. The other six times they met in a best-of-three series. In 2005 and 2006, Columbus eliminated Cartersville in a third-round series. In 2008, Cartersville triumphed in three games in another third-round series.

The 2009 Columbus High-Cartersville series was for the Georgia High School Association AAA state title. Cartersville, playing at home, won in a three-game series. The two teams met again the next year with Columbus sweeping Cartersville in the third round.

“I guess it’s kind of like Leo Durocher,” said Howard, a baseball historian. “He played for the Dodgers, managed the Dodgers, then left for the Giants.”

Cartersville is about 140 miles north of Columbus on I-75.

Howard’s return to Georgia high school coaching comes after a two-year stint in Alabama. On May 24, Howard resigned as head coach of Central High School in Phenix City, a job he held for two seasons. At the time, Howard did not discuss his reasons for leaving Central, saying only it was time for a “new and different voice.”

Howard took the Central job in 2015 after he left Columbus High. He ended his tenure at Columbus High on March 5, 2015, when he retired three games into the season with the Blue Devils’ record at 3-0.

“I told them I was 64 years old — older than any of their parents — and I was walking out and moving on,” Howard said the day he left the program. “I have earned the right to move on.”

Howard’s Columbus High teams won 819 games.

All but one year of Howard’s head coaching career has been spent on the high school level. He left Columbus High in 1997 and coached one season at Middle Georgia College in Cochran, where Howard’s team won the state junior college title. He returned to Columbus High the next season.

The bulk of Howard’s career has been spent in Georgia, where he first coached at Kendrick High School, then built a high school dynasty at Columbus High. His Columbus High teams won 12 Georgia High School Association state championships and once was voted No. 2 in the mythical national championship.

Three times Howard has been honored as a national coach of the year. He was Diamond Baseball National Coach of the Year in 2000; USA Today National Coach of the Year in 2004; and the ESPN High School Coach of the Year in 2012.

He was inducted into the Columbus State University Hall of Fame in 1998, the Georgia Dugout Club Sports Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Chattahoochee Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

He has sent at least 10 players to the major leagues, including former Chicago White Sox star Frank Thomas, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Many of his other former players have played college and professional baseball.\

This story was originally published June 22, 2017 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Bobby Howard takes job as head coach of old Columbus High rival."