Jerry Croft: Colquitt County High School

Croft was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2012.

Jerry Croft finished his 30-year high school coaching career with a 449-268-2 mark and guided Colquitt County to state baseball championships in 1997 and 2003 in Georgia’s highest classification.

He retired in 2006. His Packer teams won 20 or more games six times and he had a 31-14 record in postseason play. In addition to his state championship teams, his 1996 and 1998 squads both made the state semifinals.

Croft was humbled to be inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame.

“It’s quite an honor,” Croft told the Moultrie Observer. “I’m humbled.

Croft played baseball and basketball at Moultrie High. After high school, he played both sports at Norman College. While finishing his degree at Georgia Southwestern, he was offered a job at the old Doerun High where he coached boys basketball from 1972-78.

While coaching baseball, he also was a middle school football coach and was also a boys basketball assistant coach.

“He taught me so much,” former assistant Tony Kirkland told the Moultrie Observer. “He gave me the autonomy to do what I needed to do as a coach.”

Croft took over the baseball program at the old Moultrie High in 1977, then when Colquitt County High was formed in 1979, he directed the varsity program until his retirement. He spent his entire baseball coaching career with the Packers.

In 2017, the school’s baseball field was renamed “Jerry Croft Stadium at Packer Park.”

Some information in this article was used from the Moultrie Observer.