Tony Kirkland: Colquitt County High School
Kirkland was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2019.
Tony Kirkland said he always admired when new members of the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame were inducted every year.
In 2019, Kirkland joined the prestigious group.
“Many of those guys (Hall of Famers) are guys I grew up coaching against or played against when I was an assistant coach,” he said. “I don’t want to keep using the word over and over, but it’s humbling. It’s nice to be considered part of that group.”
The longtime coach spent the large part of his coaching career at Colquitt County. He began his career as an assistant under Jerry Croft (also a Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Famer) in 1992, and he played a key role in helping the Packers win state titles in 1997 and 2003 while playing in Georgia’s highest classification. He was the Georgia Dugout Club Assistant Coach of the Year in both of those years.
The Dothan, Ala. native, who played collegiately at Wallace College before graduating from Florida State, was also a strong defensive line coach. Under legendary high school football coach Jim Hughes, Kirkland’s defensive front helped Colquitt County win the 1994 Class 4A state championship, the state's highest classifiucation.
Kirkland got his first head baseball job in 2003 when he took over at South Effingham. He took the Mustangs to the Class 4A state semifinals in 2005. During his tenure in Guyton, Ga., he helped develop MLB All-Star All-Star Josh Reddick.
But in 2009, Kirkland returned as the head baseball coach at Colquitt County where he coached until stepping aside after the 2019 season. He helped more than 45 players sign scholarships to play college baseball and five players were drafted professionally.
His teams won six region championships, and he was named Region Coach of the Year seven times, four times at Colquitt County. He made five trips to the state semifinals, and he guided his teams to the state playoffs in 15 of his 16 seasons as head coach. He recorded 311 victories.
“I spent a lot of years as an assistant coach to a guy who won a lot of baseball games,” he said of Croft. “He prepared me for the decisions I was going to have to make as a head coach. I will always be extremely grateful that Jerry allowed myself (and former assistant) Keith Croft to do what we needed to do as assistant coaches.”
Kirkland was named the head coach for the Georgia Dugout Club All-Star games four times - twice from the Southeast and twice from the Southwest. In 2013, Kirkland was selected as the GDC’s Ethics and Professional Coaching Award recipient. He also served as the organization’s president in 2014.
Kirkland coached Team Georgia in the Sunbelt Classic in Oklahoma for more than a decade.
The longtime coach is also well-respected by his peers.
“Tony is very deserving,” said Rusty Beale, a former South Georgia head baseball coach who annually played against Kirkland. “To me, he is one of the greatest coaches to coach this game in the state of Georgia. He’s like a mentor. I call him all the time with questions. I’m very happy for him.”