Albert Lodge: Bryan County High School
Lodge was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2007.
Albert Lodge left his mark on the high school baseball coaching circuit in Southeast Georgia. He was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2007.
Never short on comedy and high-energy, he won three state baseball championships – two at Bryan County High School (1983 and 1986) and one at Savannah High (1976).
He retired in 2004 with a 422-193 record on the baseball diamond.
The Savannah Morning News described Lodge as a passionate guy “who wasn’t the typical high school coach with typical rah-rah speeches and typical by-the-book persona.”
When coaching at Savannah High, the newspaper said Lodge stopped by practice and gathered his players.
"I'll bet you I can run from here to Tybee Island and back," Lodge said, and he proceeded on a 25-mile jog.
Lodge also told his team they could make a run at a state championship. Like their coach, the Blue Jackets decided to go the extra mile.
In 31 years of coaching (baseball and softball), he accumulated a 691-282 record. He also won two state softball titles and a semipro baseball state title with Barrett Oil.
He led Bryan County to eight straight region baseball titles from 1980-87. He served as head coach at Savannah, Windsor Forest, Bryan County, Benedictine and Long County.
He was a standout player at Benedictine and Armstrong State College before a stint in the Navy.
In 1985, Lodge was the national high school coach of the year nominee for the state of Georgia. A year later, he coached the South All-Stars in the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association's first North-South baseball game.
"He was a super, high-energy guy, and that carried over to his teams," one of Lodge's former players, Steve Sims, told the Savannah Morning News. "He played the game with strategy, while other coaches were just playing the game."
Before Savannah High's 1976 state championship game with North Clayton, Lodge, a superstitious man, told his players he found a pile of loose change and each coin was facing heads, signifying good luck.
That day, lightning flashed over the baseball field, hitting the backstop, and the Jackets defeated North Clayton, 15-2.
Some information in this article was used from the Savannah Morning News.