Interview with Chilhowie's Jeff Robinson

Since Jeff Robinson took over as head coach for the Warriors varsity baseball team in 2002 the program has taken an obvious shift upward. While Robinson would contribute the success to his talented players as any noble coach would, his knowledge and love for the game is the crucial cornerstone for Chilhowie's baseball success. Since 2002, Chilhowie has been on the upper crust of the district including consecutive Region C playoff appearances.



Jeff Robinson was gracious enough to lend some time to Hogoheegee.com for an interview about his career and this up and coming season. This interview may also be featured on VirginiaPreps.

(HogoOnline) What Coaches have been influential to you and your baseball career (playing/coaching)?

(Coach) First of all, it would have to be Sam McKinney. He was my baseball coach all the way through high school and taught me a lot about the game. Coach McKinney was also kind enough have me back on his coaching staff after I got out of college. When he resigned after coaching at Chilhowie for 11 years, I got the job. I still use some of the same philosophies I learned from him many years ago.The second coach that has been very influential to me in my baseball career as both a player and a coach is Danny Burnett. He recruited me out of high school and I was part of his first recruiting class at King College. He remained my coach during all four of my years at KC and we still keep in contact.


(HogoOnline) Thinking back on your high school playing days at Chilhowie, what was one (or what are some) memorable high school feat(s) that you or your team accomplished?

(Coach) There would have to be two:
First, my Junior year in 1993 when we beat Castlewood and ace pitcher Denny Wagner 2-1 at Chilhowie on a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the 7th. Wagner had a 94 mph fastball and was drafted by the Oakland A’s after a good career at VT. I think he spent several seasons in the minors and made it as high as AA. He only lost two or three games in his entire high school career and that was one of them.
Second, during my senior year in 1994 we beat PH at their old field below the pool 7-6. We were up 7-5 with the bases loaded and 2-outs in the bottom of the 7th when somebody singled to me in centerfield and I threw out the runner that was on second at the plate to end the game.

(HogoOnline) What has been your best moment as a coach?

(Coach) O.K. I’m going to have to give you top 5 on this one (in no particular order):
2003 Hogoheegee District Tournament Semi-finals at JSB. We rallied to beat Lebanon 6-4. It clinched our first regional tournament appearance.
May 22, 2006 – We went into the last day of the regular season in 3rd place and needed to beat both GW and JSB on the same day at Warrior Field to tie for the Regular Season Championship and force a one-game playoff for the automatic regional berth. We beat GW 2-1 on a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the 7th and followed that up with a 9-4 win over JSB in the second game that day.
May 18, 2007 – We again needed to beat John Battle on the last day of the regular season (this time at Battle) to tie for the regular season championship and force another one-game playoff. Keith Fenner had the gutsiest performance I’ve ever seen in a 1-0 win. He overcame a bases loaded, nobody out situation in the bottom of the 7th to secure the win.
May 21, 2007 – On the following Monday at Patrick Henry we beat John Battle 6-5 on a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the 8th to win the one-game playoff and secure our second regional berth.
Finally, 2007 Region C Quarterfinal game at Chilhowie. Following a 30-minute rain delay, we rallied from a 3-1 deficit by scoring 5 runs off of ace pitcher Abram Williams in the bottom of the 6th to beat Radford 6-3.


(HogoOnline) You've put Chilhowie baseball on the map. What do you do differently than what was done 8/9 years ago?

(Coach) Chilhowie has, in my lifetime, always been known as a football and basketball school (probably in that order). When I first took the job at Chilhowie prior to the 2002 season, baseball was just something to do between basketball and football seasons. I had been involved in the Little League program at Chilhowie as an umpire since I was in high school. I knew we had some really good baseball talent coming, and to tell you the truth really good baseball talent there when I took over. But I knew if we were ever going to be able to consistently compete with the John Battles (who was coming off back to back Group A State Championships) and Lebanon’s, we would have to change the attitude toward the sport and make it mean something special to play baseball at Chilhowie. We modeled ourselves after the most successful programs in our area (VA High, John Battle, Abingdon, etc.) and set our goals high…and made our players believe we could reach them. Add some of the winners and great assistant coaches I have had over the last 7 years and it’s not hard to see why we have had so much success.


(HogoOnline) If you could play one team that you've not been able to schedule, who would it be?

(Coach) I have always believed in playing as tough a non-district schedule as possible. In the past, we have played such non-district teams as Abingdon, Sullivan East, Johnson County (TN), & Honaker. Last year we finally got into the Coppinger Tournament in Bluefield and got an opportunity to play such teams as Tazewell and Oak Hill, WV (I think they finished the season with a 32-4 record). This year we will once again play in the Coppinger and have regular season games with such teams as Grayson County and Richlands. My philosophy is that to be the best you have to play the best.


(HogoOnline) At what point did you decide you wanted to become a teacher and a coach?

(Coach) After we were eliminated from the State Basketball Tournament my Senior year, Mike Sturgill (who was my football coach and also served as our assistant basketball coach) told me to go to college and get my degree, then come back to Chilhowie and help him coach. I had never really thought much about teaching and coaching until then. While I was at King I briefly thought about going to law school, but in the end I could not bear the thought of giving up athletics and the sports that had been such a big part of my life.


(HogoOnline) You've been at Chilhowie for a while; do you see yourself retiring there?

(Coach) Put it this way…My son is 15 months old and I would like to coach him one day.



(HogoOnline) Many baseball professionals at all levels have superstitions and pregame rituals they perform prior to a game. Do you have any worth noting?

(Coach) Unfortunately I do. Sometimes they become hard to keep up with. For example, I refuse to wash my socks during a winning streak. My assistant coaches hate that one. Also, last year my son was only a few months old during baseball season. At one point in the year, we were 4-4 and he had only been to a few games due to the cold weather. He came to this particular game and I walked with him out onto the field while our players were stretching and they all rubbed his head for good luck. We won that game and ended up winning 14 of the next 15. In all those wins but one (you guessed it, the loss) we rubbed his head. Poor fellow…one Saturday morning on the way to Bluefield we stopped the bus at my house just to rub his head.


(HogoOnline) The R&R committee recently postponed consideration of a 5 division realignment. What are your thoughts on that realignment? In favor of it or no?

(Coach) I’m in favor of anything to make it more fair for the smaller schools. Our enrollment is not as small as some schools (even in the Hogo), but trying to compete in Region C is very tough…especially with all the former AA schools that have moved down over the past couple of decades. Our enrollment at CHS hovers around 400, give or take. When you look at schools like Grayson County, Floyd County, Giles, Fort Chiswell, and Glenvar all with enrollments over or near 600, it makes a difference. Large schools like VA High, Gate City, and JJ Kelly in Region D generally dominate. Go on up the road to Region A and B and the gap only widens. For example, Goochland, who won the 2006 Group A State Championship has an enrollment of nearly 800.


(HogoOnline) Besides your home-field, what other field is one of your favorites to play on? Why?

(Coach) I have always liked Patrick Henry’s new field. There’s something about the atmosphere of playing a night game with the crowd right on top of you. Lots of fun and we have had many great battles there under the lights.
Former Hogoheegee schools Lebanon and Honaker have awesome facilities. I have always enjoyed going there. Both have classy programs and coaches that really care about their fields…and it shows.

(HogoOnline) How excited are you about this season? Anything you can add about this upcoming season?

(Coach) The prospect of the challenge of a new season always excites me. This season looks to be very challenging for a number of reasons, but our kids have a great attitude and work ethic. We have a combination of experienced position players and hitters and young but talented players moving up from the JV team. We do not have the pitching depth we have had over the past several years, but hopefully we can develop pitching as the season progresses. With any luck, when its all said and done we will be able to play past the district tournament.


(HogoOnline) With Jerad Ward, one of your former players, taking over the head coaching job at George Wythe, does this add a new twist to the rivalry?

(Coach) I think the GW-Chilhowie baseball rivalry was already pretty good to start with, but this definitely adds a little more to it considering the fact that Jerad was one of my former players. Joey Russell (another CHS Alumni) did a great job with the GW baseball program during his stint as head coach and made them a consistent winner. So I think Jerad finds himself in a situation similar to the one I was in eight years ago, and that is a good situation to build something without starting from scratch.
Jerad remains to this day the best all-around baseball player that I have ever coached. I was an assistant coach at Chilhowie his Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years, but I was Jerad's head coach for his Senior year, and what a year it was. He basically rewrote the record book at Chilhowie that year and still holds some records that I think will never be broken. He brings a lot of fire and enthusiasm to the game and I look forward to facing him in the future.