Rusty isn’t the only Beale coaching at Lowndes. His wife, Jessi, is also a softball coach at Lowndes High – and that means the two of them coach together in the fall. He just laughs when asked if that leads to any heated discussions around the dinner table at night. “We have an agreement that we leave work at the field every day. I help with softball and she helps me with baseball. The strategy of softball is different but fundamentally it’s very similar. You still have to throw and catch,” he says.
Lowndes High first-year head baseball coach insists he didn’t come to Valdosta looking for a head coaching job. In fact, he didn’t even come to Valdosta for baseball. He figured he would coach baseball, of course – the son of baseball lifer Chuck Beale, he played in high school, college, and in the pros, and he has coached in high school and college as well – but it was softball that brought him to town. “I came to Lowndes to help with softball,” he says. “Stewart Thomas, Lowndes’s softball coach, and I went to high school together. I came here to work with him. Then Coach Redshaw asked me to help him.”
Last year was Beale’s first with the Vikings. It was also Danny Redshaw’s last. The Hall of Famer decided to retire after a career that includes a state title and a ton of post-season appearances. And that paved the way for Beale. His baseball experience includes a tremendous career at Dublin High School followed by four more years as a standout infielder at Stetson University. The Cincinnati Reds drafted him out of Stetson and he played in that organization for one year before going into coaching. Beale spent nine years as an assistant baseball coach: two stints at Tift County, Westside-Macon, Stetson University, and Lowndes.
And now, after just one year with Lowndes, he is at the helm. “I want to continue the baseball tradition here at Lowndes. There is a reason why Coach Redshaw is in the Hall of Fame. I’m following one of the greats and the pressure is on me. I just want to continue what he established here,” says Beale. A disappointing last season may help take a little of that pressure off. Injuries devastated the Vikings last year; their top position player and top pitcher never played an inning all season, and Lowndes couldn’t fill those gaps.
For 2015, Beale is getting a new start, and this time, he’s calling the shots. It’s been a transition for him, going from being an assistant to head coach. But Beale learned from one of the best – his father, who was featured in this same space back in 2009. “I learned from him that it’s better to be organized. It doesn’t matter where – the dugout club meetings, meeting with parents, or planning practice. You have to be organized. It’s really helped me and I’m glad I picked that up.”
Coach Beale’s philosophy is a simple, tried-and-true baseball formula: It all comes down to pitching and defense. “If you can do that, you’ll 
be in the majority of your games,” he says. Offensively, he states, each year is different. Sometimes a team has power, sometimes it doesn’t. “We’ll adjust our offense to the players we have.” Of course, with the change in bat technology in recent years, “power” has become a relative term. “You’re not going to hit 30 home runs a year anymore,” says Coach Beale. “You will always have to bunt and play small ball. It’s a big difference, and it’s getting back to old-time baseball.”
Making the adjustment from assistant to head coach hasn’t been the leap Beale might have expected. He was at Lowndes last year and everyone, from the kids and administrators to the parents, has been easy to work with. “This is one of the best school systems you could ever work in. The kids are great. Our administrators support us. It hasn’t been a real big challenge yet. I know the kids and they know me. Following Coach Redshaw isn’t easy because he was so successful. But being here at Lowndes has been great,” he says.
Coach’s Corner/South Georgia/March 2015
Rusty Beale
Lowndes High School
Valdosta, Georgia
Robert Preston Jr.
Coach Beale: Let’s continue the Lowndes baseball tradition
