-Wade Hedges-

Hedges is a veteran of more than a decade of baseball coaching on a variety of levels, with coaching stops at the high school, junior college and both the NCAA Division I and Division II levels. He launched his coaching career in 1995-96 as an undergraduate assistant at Florida Southern College, where he served on the staff of ABCA Hall of Famer Chuck Anderson. He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminology at FSC in 1996, and for the next two seasons served as a graduate assistant at his alma mater. During the three seasons on staff at the Lakeland, FL school the Moccasins posted a 125-47 record, claiming two Sunshine State Conference titles and advancing to the NCAA Division II Tournament each year. Florida Southern was chosen by Collegiate Baseball newspaper in 1998 as the nation’s top NCAA Division II baseball program.

In August 1998 Hedges was named head coach at Sebring (FL) High School. He guided the SHS Blue Streak squad to a district title in 1999 and a school-best runner-up finish in the 2000 regional finals, for which he was honored as the coach of the year in the district, county, and area. A full-time instructor during his two-year stay at Sebring, Hedges was honored as the school’s 9th grade Teacher of the Year in 1999 and in 2000 was selected for inclusion in “Who’s Who Among Teachers”.

He continued his baseball coaching career on the junior college level as an assistant coach at Polk Community College in Winter Haven, FL in 2000-01. Hedges served as the chief assistant to PCC head coach Johnny Wiggs, directing the team’s offensive and defensive efforts. The Vikings established team records for hits, doubles, hit-batsmen, and double plays during Hedges’ tenure there, while five PCC players advanced their careers in professional baseball and 18 others earned scholarships to four-year colleges and universities in that three-year span.

After PCC, Hedges was an administrative assistant at Mississippi State University in 2003-04. Hedges served as a hitting and pitching coordinator for MSU’s winter and summer baseball camps and assisted with the completion of the team’s SEC scouting reports. Following the 2004 season Hedges embarked on a four-year stint as an assistant coach for the Bulldogs baseball program under legendary skipper Ron Polk, where his responsibilities included development of the teams catchers and hitters, coordination of all baseball camps, management of the program’s booster club, oversight of the team’s student managers, and management of the team’s equipment needs.  During his tenure at the SEC program the Bulldogs competed in the 2007 College World Series, earned a #1 national ranking in 2006, and captured the SEC Tournament Championship in 2005.  Also, Hedges tutored the 2007 Johnny Bench Award winner and supplemental round pick, Edward Easley.

A graduate of Miamisburg (OH) High School, Hedges holds a bachelor’s degree from Florida Southern College and a master’s degree from the US Sports Academy. Hedges now manages a 10u travel team based out of Summerville, the Lowcountry Generals.