Mark Elkins: Harrison High School
Elkins was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2017.
After taking over the Harrison High School baseball program in 1999, Mark Elkins kept the Hoyas a state power. The longtime coach was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2017.
“It’s a real honor,” Elkins told the Marietta Daily Journal when he was inducted in 2017. “Obviously, as a head coach, you get a lot of credit when things go well and blame when things don’t go well. This is an honor that I share with a lot of different people that I’ve been involved with in the baseball program at Harrison. I can’t thank them enough.”
After six seasons as an assistant at Harrison, Elkins took over in 1999 where he coached until retiring after the 2022 season. He led Harrison to a state championship in 2010 in Georgia’s highest classification. Elkins was part of both of Harrison’s state championships. He was an assistant when the Hoyas won the 1998 title. He retied after the 2022 seasons and finished with a career coaching mark of 470-242.
Elkins led the Hoyas to three region titles and three trips to the state semifinals.
A standout infielder, Elkins graduated from Carbondale (Ill.) Community High School in 1984 before lettering for four seasons at Tennessee Tech where he set school records for double plays and fielding percentage as a shortstop. He was a graduate assistant with the Eagles from 1989-1992.
He was named the Georgia Dugout Club’s Assistant Coach of the Year in 1997. He was named an assistant in 1999 to coach the Atlanta West All-Star Team which won the gold medal in the Georgia Dugout Club’s All Star Games. He later was named the head coach for the Northwest team in 2012.
In 2010, he was named Class 5A Baseball Coach of the Year by the Georgia Dugout Club and by the Atlanta Braves 400 Club. In 2011, Elkins and the rest of the 1998 State Championship team were inducted into the Harrison High School Athletics Hall of Fame. In 2015, he was named the Region 5-6A Coach of the Year and was named Harvey Cochran Coach of the Year by the Marietta Umpires Association.
Elkins has been involved in the international baseball circle at various levels with USA baseball. In 2003, he served on the task force as Bullpen Manager during the Tournament of Stars at Joe Becker Stadium in Joplin, Missouri. In 2006, he served as head coach for USA baseball’s at-large team during the Tournament of Stars.
He has also served on Team USA’s 18U National Team coaching staff. In 2007, he served as an assistant for the 18U National Team which captured the Bronze Medal in the COPABE Pan Am AAA Junior Championship in Mexico. In 2008, he was head coach for Team USA’s 18U National Team which competed in the International Baseball Federation’s XXIII AAA World Junior Championships in Edmonton, Alberta. The Junior Team compiled a 13-1 record for the summer and captured the Silver Medal during the event.
Elkins worked with the 2008 team and combined with the effort of the staff and players, resulted in him being named the Developmental Baseball Coach of the Year by the United States Olympic Committee.
During his tenure at Harrison, he sent more than 75 players to college. A handful were drafted.
Some information in this article was used from the Marietta Daily Journal and hhshoyasports.com