Rose Continues Winning Standard At MCC

By Marty Stamper / staff writer
The Meridian Star
Published: July 07

Chris Rose joined a long line of successful coaches when he became head baseball coach at Meridian Community College for the 2006 season.

He maintained the standard as the Eagles won the MACJC state championship and will be honored as the Mississippi Association of Coaches Junior/Community College Baseball Coach of the Year at the annual banquet at the Hilton Hotel in Jackson at 7 p.m. tonight.

“I felt very honored to receive it,” said Rose. “When you win something like that, it just shows the type of players that you had. They overcame a lot of adversities. That’s what a team is supposed to do, but from my point of view, all I was trying to do was put them in a situation and try to be successful at the end of the day.

“Especially in the state tournament, they stepped up and got it done. All that is is a reflection of the guys that I had. I truly didn’t do anything that special. I’m just proud of them.

“I’m excited about it. (Former MCC head) Coach (Chad) Caillet won it in his first year and I guess I was lucky enough to win my first year. That’s over now though and we’ve got to move on.

“We’re pretty much done recruiting for next year, so we’re trying to get the following year’s class started.”

Rose was an assistant to Caillet in 2005 when the Eagles went 41-12 and posted the first undefeated home field record in school history. The native of Ohio came to MCC after five years as an assistant at the University of Mobile. He was a four-year letterman as a catcher at UM.

As an assistant coach at UM, Rose helped guide the Rams to their first-ever NAIA World Series appearance in 2001. In coaching the Ram pitchers, Rose’s staff compiled the lowest earned run average in the Gulf Coast Atlantic Conference every year of his tenure at UM.