Jason Lanham: Leader of the Pack

“He’s a great coach, and an even better man,” Gabe Howell says of Trion Head Baseball Coach Jason Lanham. Apparently Howell is not alone in his praise and admiration of Lanham who was recently selected as the Best of Preps Coach of the Year for 2016. The Best of Preps Award covers 70 different schools across three states.

It’s been a special year for the Trion coach as he guided the Bulldogs baseball team to 24 wins and the GHSA Class A public school championship series. It was the second title series of the year after the veteran coach took the school’s softball team to a runner-up finish.

Jason Lanham has been an answer to many prayers in Trion. The Bulldogs baseball record the year before Lanham arrived was 2-24. The Bulldogs knew they needed a new strategy when it came to baseball and the status quo of calling it in from the football field wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

Lanham, who had spent several years turning around the program at Murray County; a school that had not had a winning season in 23 years, jumped at the opportunity to go to Trion and put the bite back in the Bulldog bark.

Trion was in need of a Coach who really cared and Jason Lanham was a man who cared. Lanham knew he could do “…great things there…They were in a rough patch and together we have found our way.”

Lanham acknowledges the total commitment of the staff and complete support of the community in changing the attitude of baseball in Trion. Baseball became as important as any other sport on the hill at Trion the day Lanham arrived. Lanham secured his 100^th victory in softball and his 200^th victory in baseball as a Trion Bulldog.

Lanham commented that, “you will only be as good as the kids you coach.” Out of the thousands of student athletes hoping for a spot on the coveted Best of Preps first team, only 12 make it. Lanham was the proud Coach of two of those athletes; Gabe Howell and Drew Williams. Malik Martin was named to the third team. Coach Lanham helped produce three of the top 36 players in the Tri-State area.

Coach Lanham summed up his remarkable coaching year by saying, “I would never have the chance to win these types of awards without a great team and support around us…I had a terrific group of young men and women to work with, who believed in me as much as I believed in them. Together we took Trion Baseball and Softball to new heights.”

Lanham shown with Gabe Howell on the night Howell signed with the Braves. Lanham has coached Howell since the summer of his 8th grade year.