‘Honored’ Curry returns to MCC as head baseball coach

By Daniel Rigdon / Sports Writer The Meridian Star

MERIDIAN — Honored, privileged and lucky. These were just a few of the emotions running thru Chris Curry's head Friday afternoon as he was introduced as Meridian Community College's head baseball coach in a press conference held in Graham Gymnasium by Associate Dean for Student Services Sander Atkinson.

Curry, who has previously held assistant coaching positions at the University of Arkansas and Arkansas Tech, was overcome with excitement and anticipation when word of the job coming open reached him in early June after Chris Rose departed for the East Mississippi Community College program after five years with MCC.

"My heart jumped when I first heard about the opening," said Curry. "MCC has a special place in my life and I was at a place in my life where I just knew I was gonna go after this job. Winning is the MCC tradition and I want to be in a place where baseball is important for the community. As soon as it happened I put a call into Sander to tell him to put my name in the ring, and he was interested. Now here we are."

Atkinson, who spearheaded the committee to fill the coaching vacancy, believes the hire is what is best for MCC and the community. The committee interviewed four candidates after narrowing down the numerous candidates' resumes.

"We had dozens of people interested in the job and all of them were well-qualified," said Atkinson. "We had an outstanding pool of candidates. As we went through the process and got into interviews it became clear that Chris, with the resume he had and the way he answered questions with a passion for the game of baseball and MCC, was ready to take over leadership of the program. We are lucky to get him."

A former Eagle catcher, Curry will look to fill the shoes of the previous MCC skippers that ingrained a strong winning tradition into the Eagles baseball program. Curry played at MCC in 1997-98 before heading to Mississippi State.

"What I wanna do is continue the tradition that is the MCC baseball program," said Curry. "There have been great coaches to come thru here like Corky Palmer, Scott Berry and all the other great coaches that came after them.

"I'm going to establish discipline and make sure this team works hard on and off of the field. I believe that with the level of players we get in here and the brand of baseball we will play will give us a real chance to be successful."

Curry has been busy reaching out to his players since he was informed he would be filling the position.

"I talked to all my players on the phone," added Curry. "The first thing I did when I got the job is to put in calls to them and the first thing I asked everyone of them was are you committed to this team. Right out of the gate, everyone was on board. "

Assistant coach Dillon Sudduth will remain with the program in his current position. Curry has been impressed with Sudduth in the short time he has known him and looks for great things from him.

"Dillon Sudduth is going to be our hitting coach," noted Curry. "I think the numbers that he has had over the past few years have been outstanding. We met on Monday and I have been very impressed with him. He has done a great job keeping the team together and keeping the guys on board. He's gonna be a great coach and I'm really excited to work with him."