Holtville’s Tubbs named ALABCA Coach of the Year

Scott Tubbs, Holtville's baseball coach still gets rewards for last year's successful championship run.

Tubbs, the coach who guided Holtville to their first AHSAA Class 5A state championship in four decades. He was called Head Coach of the Year for his team's success by Alabama Baseball Coaches Association on Friday night.

In the 2023 baseball season, Holtville had a total of 28 wins and 14 losses. They also defeated Sardis in all three state championship games by winning two times with scores of 3-2 and another time by getting three points to their opponents' one point.

"This is a prize for the whole team," Tubbs said. "It's a big honor for all of us." These sorts of awards don't come unless you have a strong team including coaches, players, parents and wives. That's just a build-up of what our season is. It doesn't involve me at all. It is all about our plan and it says we did everything right.

Holtville started the 2023 season after losing a state championship last year. The Bulldogs had a tough time in the regular season and faced more problems than any other team in their state.

After winning 18 games and losing 13, with their last two regular season games having a total score of 2-18, it seemed like the Bulldogs were weak before entering into playoffs. In the first game, Mobile Christian's team received Slapout and they won Game 1 with a score of 1-0. They got five points in the top part of their very first round.

In the second game of the doubleheader, things started to change. Holtville won by a big score 13-3. In the final Game 3, Holtville won with a score of 12-6. This set up a big competition against Elmore County in the next round.

"We weren't playing good for two weeks before the playoffs started, but our win over Mobile Christian helped us find confidence again," Tubbs said.

In the normal season, Holtville didn't win any games against Elmore County. This also happened in their first match of this series as Elmore won by a score of 4-2. Just like the first series, the Bulldogs won Games 2 and 3 to move on.

Then, when Headland arrived in town, the same story happened. Headland started winning over Holtville in Game 1, but they didn't stay on top. Instead, Holtville won with a score of 4-2 and ended the game early by scoring two more points for the win within six innings.

Going into the semifinals, Holtville had faced more problems than any other team in their state. And it proved when the Bulldogs were prepared for whatever came their way.

They won against Demopolis in two games and got a spot at state. Then, they defeated Sardis to get their first championship since 1983.

In the state title series, Holtville didn't get a hit in first five innings of Game 1 before they fought back and took a 3-2 lead at the bottom of sixth. This happened because seniors Sam Silas and Tanner Potts along with others made some big hits during that time.

In Game 2, Silas was the only player across all seven classifications to hit a home run. Drey Barrett pitched throughout the entire game and let in just one point.

He said, "It was a very good competition." "We played three games against three teams and were very strong. We didn't give up easily. I was lucky enough to be part of many state champion teams, but this one felt the most special because it wasn’t easy." I'm very happy for the children because they agreed with what we were doing and tried hard in a big way.