After a decade, Hurley returns to prep baseball

By Jeremy Wise

Published: July 22, 2008

Hank Hurley has high school baseball coaching experience, but it was in the last decade.

When Hurley was asked to return to the dugout at Daleville High School, he agreed to it

Hurley was recently named Daleville’s baseball coach. He replaces Seth Nolen, who took the head baseball job at Headland.

Hurley’s last job was as head football coach of AISA’s Lyman Ward Military Academy, a school with no baseball program. He was at Lyman Ward for nine years.

Despite not coaching high school baseball since a 1996-1997 stint at Alexandria, Hurley said he is not rusty on the game.

“I managed to keep up with it,” he said. “I have two kids that played youth baseball, and I kept up that way. You teach them fundamentals down there.”

Hurley said that also continues in high school.

”We’re gonna start with fundamentals. It’s like the old saying goes, ‘You’ve got to make all the easy plays and some of the hard ones,’” he said.

Hurley, who will also serve as an assistant football coach, said he played baseball at Handley High.

“I was a catcher. I had a decent arm and called a good game,” he said. “I had trouble hitting a curveball, though.”

Hurley said playing as a catcher gives him an advantage in coaching.

“It’s kind of like the quarterback of the baseball game since you work with pitching and defenses,” he said. “You have to have more of a grasp of the game than
say a shortstop.”