It may have taken longer than he expected, but Pillow Academy Headmaster Jay Watts believes he has found the right man.
Watts announced Tuesday that he has hired Jud Thigpen to take over the Mustang baseball team.
Thigpen, 33, was the 2004 ABCA National Player of the Year and first-team All-American on Delta State’s 2004 national championship team.
“Jud brings outstanding knowledge of the game after having an opportunity to play under a lot of different coaches,” Watts said. “We’re excited about him coming in here to help our baseball program get back on track.”
Thigpen replaces Alex Fletcher, who was relieved of head coaching duties in April following three straight losing seasons. He takes over a program that went 20-58-2 over the last three seasons.
“I am not worried about the past. All I can do is control the future,” said Thigpen, who in 2010 was named to the Gulf South Conference’s All-Decade Team and was tabbed as the West Division’s Player of the Decade. “I was a hard-nosed, scrappy player, and that’s how I will coach our kids to play the game. That’s how they will have to play if they’re playing for me.
“If we lose a game, it won’t be from a lack of effort.”
Thigpen has also worked as a full-time hitting instructor at Performance Sports Academy in Jackson. Prior to serving as scout for the Rockies, he served two seasons as the manager of the Brockton Rox, a member of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.
When the Rox were a pro team and part of the Canadian-American League, Thigpen played for them in 2008 and 2009 to close out his professional career. In his two years with the Rox, he hit 28 homers, drove in 109 runs and was named to the “All Time-Brockton Rox Team” as the left fielder.
“Every year I have played or coached the game, we’ve been in the playoffs,” Thigpen said. “Those are the minimum expectations I will always have.
“The first thing I’ve got to do is get these kids and the school excited about baseball. That’s where we start.”
The Cleveland native and Bayou Academy product played 12 games in 2005 with the Triple-A Colorado Springs of the Pacific Coast League, where he hit .317 during that brief time.
