Hagist
The only coach in Greenwood Christian’s 12 years of baseball, Doug Hagist has become adept at sidestepping praise.
Four sectional championships and the Cougars currently making their deepest run to date with a berth in Saturday’s Class A Jasper Semistate isn’t about to change that.
Now, like before, it’s about the kids.
Hagist, the coach when the GCA program was founded in 2012, exits the Cougars’ dugout for good at the completion of a season that no Cougars player, coach or fan wants to see end. He has accepted a job at Mooresville Christian Academy and will become the school’s principal at the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.
“I’ve been coaching one way or another for 29 years,” said the 53-year-old Hagist, a 1988 Roncalli graduate. “I was debating on even telling the team, but I let everyone know about two weeks before the tournament started.
“I told the players I loved them, and that this was just an opportunity professionally where I wanted to see if I’m any good at it, I guess.”
As for the success of his final GCA team, Hagist, not surprisingly, deflects any credit.
“I don’t think this has anything to do with me,” said Hagist, whose squad faces No. 1 Barr-Reeve (27-3) in Saturday’s second semistate semifinal. “We set up a really tough regular-season schedule to set us up for the tournament.
“The kids really enjoyed playing the schedule, and have been very positive and uplifting around each other.”
Under Hagist’s direction, GCA wasted little time making an impression.
By the Cougars’ third season (2014), they were celebrating their first sectional title. Greenwood Christian rode the wave of momentum to the 2015 and 2016 sectional championships, and now Hagist’s current group finds itself two wins from a drive to Victory Field in Indianapolis for the state championship game.
Assistant coach Krae Sparks, a former pitcher-first baseman who helped GCA win its first three sectionals, said Hagist’s people skills have been what helped make the program succeed.
“One of his biggest talents is just how he handles people whether it’s players, coaches or parents,” said Sparks, a 2016 GCA graduate. “He just has an awareness of how each person is.
“When I played for him, he was more intense more often. With this team, he’ll get intense when he needs to, but it’s a good balance.”
IF YOU GO
Class A Jasper Semistate
Saturday
Shakamak (15-10) vs. Rising Sun (17-6-1), 11 a.m.
Barr-Reeve (27-3) vs. Greenwood Christian (15-12-1), 2 p.m.
Championship, 8 p.m.
Admission: $12 per session, $20 full day (children 5 and under free)
