It’s been a few weeks since the Georgetown Eagles won their first UIL 5A state championship and head coach Jordon Vierra says it still hasn’t really sunk in yet. “It’s all very special. I could not be more proud of the kids and the work they’ve done,” he says. “But, still, someone introduced me as the state champion head baseball coach at the All-Star game and it just sounded weird.”
Jordon says the win was a wonderful testament to what the team committed to and practiced all year and a rare opportunity for him to come full circle in his own career. A 2007 GHS graduate, he and his brother played Eagle baseball, his father was a softball coach, and his mom was a principal. Even then, he says, the Georgetown community was always a factor in all the teams’ successes. Early in the tournament Jordon told his players, “The more our team wins and advances in the playoffs, the bigger the sea of blue becomes. By the time we reach Dell Diamond there will be 5,000-8,000 people in blue who will want to cheer for you. They will have your back and want to see you succeed.”
He noted that when the team arrived at the field for the first game, there were generations of fans, Little League coaches who used to play at GHS, and grandparents who watched or played over the years. “There is nothing more special than Georgetown baseball at Dell,” he adds.
As a father himself, Jordon says coaching takes on a different feel, adding that it is difficult to point out just one person or event that stands out. “When I got on the bus and made sure everyone was there, I reflected back on the year. Everything they’ve done on the field but also all the obstacles they’ve overcome off the field; every single guy has contributed.”
It’s not (really) about winning
For their part, the players fully expected it to happen this year. “They knew they had the tools,” Jordon says. “Last June, they set a series of goals and continued to check the boxes until the final goal of the dog pile at Dell Diamond. It was also wonderful to have [former coach] Adam Foster there. He was able to get Georgetown to the championship twice and he wound himself around security to get to me on the field and tell me how proud he was.”
Still, for Jordon, as it was Adam, the goal has never been to win the title but to turn good young boys into good young men. Jordon says, “Championships are great, but the thing that is really cool is getting wedding invites from people we coached and watching them grow into good men. That is why we spend the time we do. If we do a good job of creating men, the wins and losses take care of themselves. I’m thankful to be a part of that. I’ve been around people for whom winning is everything, and I don’t want to be that guy. I don’t like to lose but I won’t sell my soul to win.”
What’s next?
Having achieved their ultimate goal, the bar has been set. “We are going to enjoy it for a few days,” Jordon says, “then we will start back next week with a new group of guys and a standard reset. But this time it is state champs or bust because our community has always helped us remember that is the goal. There were fourth and fifth graders in stairwells wanting to shake hands and take photos. When those kids get to Dell Diamond in a few years they will remember that moment and then it will be their turn.”
One of those young men was Logan Smith, who hit a solo home run in the final game. “I just took off sprinting and had a big smile on my face when the coach started waving me home.” He recalled traveling to the championship as a freshman to see what it was like to simply watch the tournament and said he had never seen a home run in the tournament. He says, “Winning the gold and seeing the whole town so excited because we’ve been there twice before felt like a little bit of revenge. We had a special chemistry this year with 15 seniors and if next year’s team has the same mentality, they can land in the same spot again. Every guy was very unselfish and very willing to be for the team and not themselves.”
We’re sure the Georgetown community would agree! Congratulations, Eagles!