Chuck Beale: Dublin High School
Beale was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2021.
Chuck Beale wanted to be at the top of his game as a player.
But deep-down inside, he said there wasn’t any doubt what he wanted to do after his playing days were over.
“I wanted to coach,” the longtime head baseball coach at Dublin High School and Tift County said.
Beale said he was thrilled to be inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2021.
“It’s a big honor,” he said. “It’s a big honor for the kids who played (under me) as well as myself. I had a lot of good players and a lot of good assistants.”
After playing baseball and football at Willingham High and Southwest Macon, he played two years of college baseball at Middle Georgia and was a part of the 1975 team that finished third at the Junior College World Series. He transferred to Valdosta State after the ’75 season and played under legendary coach Tommy Thomas, also a member of the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame.
At Valdosta State, Beale was part of a team in 1977 that finished third in the NCAA Division II College World Series.
He was hired at Evans Junior High after college where he was an assistant in football, baseball and track & field from 1977-79. He landed at Tift County in 1979 where he coached football and baseball until 1990 when he went to Dublin to serve as the school’s head baseball coach. He also coached football and softball until 2001 when he went back to Tift County, again coaching football and baseball before becoming Tift’s head baseball coach in 2004.
He served in that capacity until 2012 when he retired.
Beale’s coaching career was a successful one. He compiled an overall record of 362-183-2 in 19 seasons as head baseball coach at Dublin and Tift County. During his tenure, he said he was blessed to have coached both of sons – Chuck, Jr. as well as Rusty.
The longtime coach credited playing under such coaches as Billy Henderson, a GDC Hall of Fame member, and Edgar Hatcher. But perhaps his biggest mentor was his father, Billy Beale, Sr., who coached him in football at SW Macon.
“Dad instilled the love of sports in me,” Beale said. “He was always willing to play catch or whatever. I played football just to play for my dad.”
While Beale coached at Dublin, he had an impact on a young coach at a region rival school trying to make his mark in the Georgia high school coaching circle. Todd Eubanks, now the head coach at Woodland-Bartow High, said Beale gave him a warm welcome when he was the coach at Peach County after coming from Tusculum University.
“He was very helpful and he always did the right things,” Eubanks said. “When you played his teams, they were always well-prepared and played the game with class. He was always quick to offer encouragement.”
Chuck Beale joined his oldest brother Billy in the GDC Hall of Fame.
To say the Beale’s are a baseball family is an understatement. Billy retired from coaching Lincoln County High and his younger brother Ricky is the athletic director at Evans High. Chuck’s two sons – Chuck, Jr. is the head baseball coach at Johnson County, while Rusty is the head baseball coach at Cook.
“One year I think the Atlanta newspaper did an article on me, Billy and Ricky when we were all in the baseball playoffs,” Beale said. “That was our life. Without question, we knew what we wanted to do.”
And that was coaching.