Jim Turner: First Presbyterian Day School
Turner was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2020.
It's hard not to talk about First Presbyterian Day baseball or softball and Jim Turner's name not surface. The legendary coach spent 33 seasons mentoring young players with all but one spent at the Macon private school. His lone season away from FPD came during the 2003-04 season when he coached at Houston County.
He was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2020.
"I feel very fortunate," Turner said. "When you see guys like Bobby Howard, Bob Jones, Harvey Cochran, some of those guys in the Hall of Fame, I'm blessed. It's something I dreamed would happen, but one of those things you don't have control over. You work as hard as you can and leave it in the Good Lord's hands. Fortunately, it happened."
A standout shortstop at Lanier High in Macon, he attended Georgia on a scholarship and was the team captain in 1973. He was drafted in 1974 by the Reds and played in Billings, Montana and Seattle. After his pro career ended, he spent seven seasons working for Campus Crusade for Christ.
A devout Christian, Turner said he knew coaching was his calling.
"God was very specific," Turner said. "I had been reading Romans 12:1-2 and he told me he wanted me to be a coach who was different from the world. It's been my calling to be a coach who is not conformed to the world."
Turner's career included a 370-216 record on the baseball diamond, including 10 region titles and state championships in 1992 and 2010 in the Georgia Independent Schools Association. His teams finished as state runner-up in 1986 and 1993. He was 10-time region coach of the year and two-time state coach of the year. In 2013 and 2014, his teams won region titles as members of the Georgia High School Association, which FPD joined in the fall of 2010. He retired from coaching baseball in 2014.
His softball record was 257-105 in 12 seasons, which included seven region titles and eight visits to the state semifinals. Four of his teams played for state titles.
Three of his region champion softball teams (2013, 2014 and 2015) were won in the GHSA. He retired from coaching softball after the 2015 season, then stepped away as an FPD faculty member in the spring of 2016.
Turner said relationships and influencing his players for Christ were more important than winning titles.
"I had a player text me one day who had played for me in 1983 who told me his daughter was getting married and he didn't know how to feel about it," Turner said. "Having an influence on him 35 years later is still important to me."
Sy Jones, the head baseball coach at Coffee, was an assistant coach under Turner. He said the longtime coach wasn't afraid to think outside the box.
"When I think of Coach Turner, it's all about the relationships," Jones said. "He is a romantic and baseball lends itself to those kinds of people. He has a passion and nuance for the game, like making sure the game is played the right way. He was never afraid to be superstitious or think outside the box.
"He built relationships often by using his favorite gift of Twizzlers, stuff like that. He knew the game beyond the average high school coach."