Daviess County High School has named alumnus Austin Clay as the new head baseball coach after he served as an assistant for the past four seasons.
Clay, 27, replaces Brandon Dennis, who stepped down last month after 11 seasons as the head coach of the Panthers. Clay played his final two varsity seasons at DCHS under Dennis during his high school career.
After graduating in 2010, Clay went on to play at Western Kentucky University before eventually joining the Panthers’ staff in 2016. Clay is also a teacher at the high school, and he said his involvement played a role in helping him land the promotion.
Clay said with his extended knowledge of the team, he’s hoping for an easy transition.
“I think coming from within the program will help me in that regard,” he said. “It’s not a process where I have to get to know everybody and learn how things work at Daviess County.”
Clay said he’s always known he wanted to return to Daviess County to coach, and his vision for the team is about more than winning.
“I expect to be a contender every year within the district and the region,” he said. “But it’s also very important to me that when people think about Daviess County baseball they think about us as a team that plays hard and loves to play baseball. If you take care of those things — things you can control — everything else will take care of itself.”
Clay said his outlook on what is most important — not just in coaching but also in life — changed a few years ago after some health complications.
“In 2016 I had a brain tumor removed,” he said. “It kind of put stuff into perspective. More than anything it made me grateful to have an opportunity every day just to be alive. It made me realize what a blessing everything was.”
Clay said the last few years he’s been especially grateful for the relationships he’s built with the players and the ability to witness their growth.
Last season, Daviess County finished with a 10-19 record that didn’t quite reflect that amount of talent on the roster. With a team full of first-time starters, the Panthers struggled at times to put a complete game together.
With only one player lost to graduation, though, Clay thinks the 2020 team has plenty of potential.
“Last year we had a lot of guys that were getting their first crack at being a varsity everyday player,” he said. “Virtually every one of those guys is back. I think that will pay dividends having guys with that experience now. We’ve got some good young kids behind them, too. I don’t think there’s necessarily anything that needs to be rebuilt. It’s just something that’s a process.”
