Newton County is sending another assistant coach to the head coaching ranks.
Newton County baseball assistant Michael Hindman was recently named the head coach at Belmont High School, a Class 2A school in Northeast Mississippi.
“A few friends of mine reached out to me and said they thought it was something that I should look into it,” Hindman said. “They were looking to push baseball a lot harder and I decided that I liked the direction they were headed. It seemed like their mindset and my mindset was the same. It seems like a great place to raise a family. It could be a sleeping giant.”
Hindman said Belmont, which is also a power in basketball, played for the 2A state title in 2016 against Sumrall.
“They have people who are blue color and hard working and players who are the same way,” Hindman said. “They are looking for somebody to come in and push them and drive them to create a championship culture.”
Hindman brings a wealth of experience to the position. Hindman had stops at West Lauderdale under coach Jerry Boatner and at Union and then spent the last five years at Newton County under former coach Wyatt Tullos. Hindman is a Mississippi State graduate and played at Mississippi College and Creighton College.
“I’ve learned a lot in the last five years,” Hindman said. “I’ve learned a lot about humility. When I got here, we were coming off the state championship run and I learned how to dig deeper for those victories. We battled a bunch of injuries my first two years and were able to develop some of those young kids. We fell short this year but we thought it was a good year considering everything we went through. I can’t thank Coach Tullos enough. He taught me more than just baseball.”
Hindman said he will be moving his family to Belmont in the next two weeks and be ready to hit the ground running when the summer starts.
“We will hit the ground running June 1,” Hindman said. “We will have tryouts next week and hopefully that will help me get a feel of what we’ve got. We will play through June and have voluntary workouts in July. Just like at Newton County, the weight room will be huge for us. We are going to be pushing the hard in the weight room and develop a throwing program. They will be doing some things we have never done before.”
One thing Hindman will be taking with him comes from football coach Bobby Bass.
“The workout program is the best I have ever seen,” Bass said. “It’s something Coach Bass brought to Newton County and it’s something I will use up there. We have to get bigger and faster and stronger. But I think more importantly than that, we have to start cultivating relationships. I’m leaving some good relationships down here but looking forward to getting up there and building some new one. At the end of the day, that’s bigger than winning trophies. Relationships last a lifetime.”
