Hardaway High School is all Chris Gilstrap has ever known. Literally. Most of his life has been spent in the hallways of the Columbus, Georgia, high school – first as a standout baseball player and now as its head baseball coach. He first stepped foot on campus when he was 13 years old. Now in his 10th season as a coach (seven as an assistant, three as head coach), Gilstrap can’t imagine being anywhere else. “I’m a proud Hardaway alumni. This is the only place I’ve worked since getting into education. Except for four years of college, it’s been the only place I’ve ever been. I’m grounded here and I can’t see myself anywhere else,” he says.
That’s good news if you’re a Hardaway baseball player or fan, bad news if your team is on its schedule each spring. When Gilstrap was a player, the Hawks won a region championship and were state runners-up two years in a row. After graduating from Hardaway, Gilstrap went to Young Harris College, where he played two years of baseball in the North Georgia mountains. He returned home to Columbus after finishing at Young Harris, where he was team captain and an eventual All-American for Columbus State. He was also a member of the 2002 CSU national championship team. He earned All-World Series honors and will be inducted into Columbus State’s athletic hall of fame later this year.
When he came back to Hardaway after his playing career ended, the Hawks were still playing pretty good baseball. They were winning 25-30 games per year and making deep playoff runs. Then, in 2007, Hardaway had an off year and that began a downward spiral that took several years from which to recover. Gilstrap spent seven years as an assistant baseball coach (he also coached football and softball) before taking over the program three years ago. His first season as head coach was a difficult one; the Hawks won just nine games and didn’t make the playoffs. For a player and coach used to winning championships, that was a hard pill to swallow. “It was a frustrating year. And thing is, this was a dream job for me. I was well known locally and I had the chance to coach at my alma mater. I didn’t like the way that season turned out,” he says.
Two days after the season ended, he met with his players and they enacted a plan to turn around the Hawks’ fortunes. He was also able to step away from coaching softball, which gave him more time to devote to baseball. Coach Gilstrap saw that his team needed to be more competitive with each other. They also needed more time in the weight room. The added competition and the confidence his players gained from getting bigger and stronger paid off.
Early in the 2013 season, the Hawks played LaGrange. It was a close game that came down to the final inning. Hardaway won with a walk-off single that Coach Gilstrap believes was a pivotal moment for his team. “It showed we could win a close game. The year before, we lost 10 one-run games. When we beat LaGrange, we saw we could produce in big situations. That set the tone for the rest of the season,” he says. Hardaway went on to win 25 games and a region title.
This season, the Hawks are picking up where they left off. At the time of this writing, Hardaway was 4-0 and 1-0 in the region. They were averaging 11 runs per game despite having to re-build the heart of the batting order. “Our guys are playing very confidently. When they play like this, they are very good. They feel like they can win every day,” he says.
Now that a sense of respectability has been restored to the Hardaway baseball program, Coach Gilstrap would like to continue this recent run of success. He would like to keep accumulating region championships and become a bona fide state title contender. The Columbus area has a proud baseball heritage and he would for Hardaway to write another chapter in the valley’s baseball legacy. “This is where I want to be. I love it here,” he says.
Later this year, Coach Gilstrap will be inducted into the Columbus State Hall of Fame. He kind of knew this day would come. He had an incredible career in two short years. In two years at Columbus State, he hit .362 with eight home runs and 107 RBI. Fifty-eight of those RBI came in his All American senior year – the same year CSU won the national title. “I would be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to this day since I left Columbus State. I’m being inducted with one of my best friends who was also my roommate. This is an incredible honor and I feel like it will finally close the book on my career at Columbus State,” he says.
The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer contributed to this story.
Coach’s Corner/Columbus Valley/March 2014
Chris Gilstrap
Hardaway High School
Columbus, Georgia
Robert Preston Jr.
Chris Gilstrap led Hardaway Hawks as a player, now as a coach
