Jeff Rowland: Pope High School
Rowland was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2016.
Bio updated 9/5/2024
Jeff Rowland took over the Pope High School baseball program in 1995 and built the Greyhounds into a state power. Rowland was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2016.
Rowland retired from Pope after the 2021 season with a 550-254 career coaching mark.
Before the 2024 season, Rowland came out of retirement and took over at Holy Innocents'. He owns a 572-268 coaching mark entering the 2025 season.
He guided Pope to state baseball titles in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2018. His 2016 squad finished as the state runner-up in the state's highest classification, while his 2019 squad was state runner-up in Class 6A.
“It takes a village,” Rowland told the Marietta Daily Journal. “My assistant coaches have been awesome. I pretty much just ride their coattails. They do all the work. It seems like I’m the one that reaps the benefit, but those guys should be here as well.”
Rowland, known for his humbleness, graduated from West Georgia and was an assistant coach at Shamrock and Mt. Zion-Carrollton before coming to Pope in 1995. He has also been an assistant football coach and served as head wrestling coach at Shamrock and Mt. Zion.
The Georgia Dugout Club selected Rowland as the Assistant Coach of the Year in 1993. He was also chosen on four different occasions to coach the Georgia Dugout Club Senior All-Star teams.
In 2002, he was selected as an assistant coach for the Senior Team Georgia that won the gold medal in the prestigious Sunbelt Classic held in Oklahoma.
In 2009 and 2013, Rowland was chosen as the Atlanta Braves 400 Club Coach of the Year as well as Coach of the Year by the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association and Georgia Dugout Club.
“He understands that his assistant coaches have certain abilities, and he doesn’t tell us how to do our jobs,” former assistant coach and former player Chris Turco told the Marietta Daily Journal. “It’s a great way to manage and has helped me a lot in my own coaching career. Quite frankly, he’s the least egotistical guy I’ve ever met. Everybody knows he’s the guy in charge, but the fact that he takes everyone’s input on decisions, there’s a lot of coaches who don’t do that.”
Some information in this article was used from the Marietta Daily Journal and popebaseball.com.