HLB baseball coach resigns

Former H.L. Bourgeois baseball coach John Gatlin is trading in one coaching job for another, in a sense.

Gatlin, who spent the past three years guiding the Braves, recently resigned his position as the school’s baseball coach so that he could dedicate more time to helping his son, Jace, become a ballplayer.

Gatlin’s son is scheduled to begin his prep career next year as a freshman at Terrebonne High School. He is currently playing for Terrebonne’s Swampland League summer-ball team.

“To be honest, he’s a little bit behind on where he needs to be in baseball. But he loves the game and I basically decided I was going to start coaching him and helping him,” said Gatlin.

To be clear, Gatlin isn’t joining the coaching staff at Terrebonne. He plans to continue teaching at H.L. Bourgeois, but now he’ll be able to spend more time helping his son hone his own baseball skills.

Gatlin is nevertheless familiar with Terrebonne. He spent five years as the school’s baseball coach from 2003-2008, and then spent another three years as the school’s golf coach.

After eight years at Terrebonne, Gatlin took over the reins at H.L. Bourgeois from former Braves coach and Nicholls State player Rondon Anderson.

With so many years of coaching experience in the Terrebonne Parish area, walking away from the profession wasn’t an easy thing for Gatlin to do, he said.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Gatlin said. “I’ll tell you something: when my son started playing on his travel team this year, I’d be in the stands and we’d have somebody on base, and I’d see the pitcher (attempt a) pick off move and I’d yell ‘BACK!’ from the stands as a fan. I had to tell myself that I’m no longer a coach and that I’ve got to stay out of it. It’s kind of different.”

Gatlin said he made the decision to step down as the Braves’ coach about two weeks before the end of the school year after talking it over with his wife.

“She basically told me, ‘You’re about to miss everything with your son in baseball because you’re too busy coaching everybody else,’” Gatlin recalled. “It got me to thinking and I said, ‘You know what, you’re right. I’m never going to be able to get these years back that my son is playing high school sports.’”

Baseball coaches at every level are used to late-night hours, and on nights when his team played, Gatlin said it wasn’t uncommon for him to get home at 11 p.m.

Even on normal practice days, he said, coaches sometimes don’t get home until 7 p.m. or later.

“By then, everybody is getting their homework done and getting ready for school the next day, and the whole day is over,” Gatlin said. “I just don’t want to miss any of it.”

As for the reaction of H.L. Bourgeois’ players and their parents, Gatlin said they were surprised by his decision but that they supported him nonetheless.

“I did have a bunch of parents call me and tell me how disappointed they were,” he said. “They told me they were disappointed but that they definitely understood.”

The Braves were 21-50 under Gatlin. This past year, the team was 7-22. Gatlin said he would consider coaching in the future, adding the occupation is his lifeblood.