Steve Janousek: Toombs County High School/ABAC
Janousek was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2020.
Winning was important to Steve Janousek. But teaching his players morals, values and how to play the game the right way were more important.
“I just wanted to do things the right way,” Janousek said. “That’s what I tried to do … try to get kids to go to class and emphasize academics. Then I wanted to treat everyone equally. I tried to work kids hard and get them in shape.”
He was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Hall of Fame in 2020.
Janousek was not only a successful high school baseball coach in Georgia, he succeeded at the collegiate level as well, spending 15 seasons as the head coach at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton. He guided Toombs County to the Georgia High School Association Class 1A state championship in 1996.
A native of Gwinnett County where he played at Central Gwinnett High, Janousek was a standout pitcher who signed with Middle Georgia College in 1980. However, he was drafted by the Montreal Expos in 1980 before he suffered a torn rotator cuff. He played for Middle Georgia from 1980-82 (he was redshirted in 1981). He helped the Warriors to Junior College national titles in 1980 and 1982 when the program went a combined 110-6. He transferred to Georgia College and played under GDC Hall of Famer John Kurtz where he graduated.
In 1984, he was captain on the Bobcats’ team that made the NAIA World Series.
After a successful college career, he landed at Treutlen High School in 1986 as an assistant. He got his first head coaching job at Wheeler County in 1987 and spent seven seasons there before landing as the head baseball coach at Toombs County in the fall of 1994. He spent three seasons with the Bulldogs before moving into the college ranks as the head coach at ABAC in 1994 where he remained until 2012 when he stepped away.
“Here’s what I think about Steve Janousek,” said former Swainsboro head coach Hank Aldridge, also a GDC Hall of Fame member. “He’s the ultimate competitor. Whether it was tiddly-winks or hunting, he was the ultimate competitor and he always did it with a lot of class.”
Janousek won a combined 531 games while coaching high school and collegiate baseball.
“I’m so humbled and honored,” Janousek said. “Looking at the list (of GDC Hall of Famers), there are several people in there who I competed against. I’m happy just to be nominated, but to be put into the Hall is just an honor.”
Both of Janousek’s college coaches – Robert Sapp (Middle Georgia) and Kurtz (Georgia College) – are both members of the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame.
“It’s quite an honor to be in there with those two guys,” he said. “I’m just honored.”