Pictured above is newly named Valley Rams Varsity Baseball Coach Mike Meadows and his wife, Robin
The Chambers County School District is pleased to announce the promotion of Coach Mike Meadows as the system’s new varsity baseball coach named to serve at Valley High School.
Coach Meadows was promoted to serve as the Rams new baseball coach to fill the vacancy for the 2022 spring sports year.
Coach Meadows will begin his transition into his new role effective immediately as he is excited to meet his new Rams Baseball team.
Coach Meadows was chosen to succeed former Rams Baseball Coach Matt Hicks. Coach Meadows experience and familiarity with the current roster made him a natural fit for the new Rams Head Coach.
Mike Meadows graduated from Valley High School in 1993 and was born and raised here in Chambers County. Meadows attended VHS from 1990-93 where he played on the varsity baseball team for three seasons primarily as a 2nd baseman. He played for former Rams Coach Mike Frazier and Assistant Coach Walt Williams earning three varsity letters.
Meadows final year on the diamond saw him and the rest of the Ram seniors win 20 plus games and their teams Class 5A Area Championship. The team advanced to the third round of the AHSAA playoffs beating Wetumpka in the first round and Robertsdale in the 2nd round before losing to Monroe County in the quarterfinals.
After graduation, Meadows attended SUSCC for his first year of school in Valley while working part time. During his sophomore year, he walked on that fall in the baseball program at CVCC-Phenix City.
He went on to earn his certification in Industrial Electronics from SUSCC in 1999. Mike was hired to a full-time position by the Chambers County Highway Department in 1996 while he worked and finished his schooling certification. Meadows began his lengthy tenure in the highway department as laborer before earning a promotion to supervisor. Then in 2014, he was promoted to a leadership position as the Highway Department Superintendent.
He is married to Robin (Kendrick) Meadows having recently celebrated their 25th anniversary. She too is also a native of Chambers County. Their son, Ryan Meadows attended and graduated from Valley High School where like his Father, had a successful prep career on the baseball diamond. Ryan went on to play college baseball at Huntingdon College and is now teaching and coaching at W.F. Burns Middle School.
Mike has a lengthy history in the community dating back to his first work in the Valley Parks and Recreation baseball program that began in 2004. In 2009, Coach Meadows founded the Valley Thunder, a travel team baseball program for 9 & under youth. Under Coaches direction, the Valley Thunder program continued to grow over the next few years including teams from 9U up to 12 & under.
By 2011, Coach founded the EAB travel baseball program serving players across the Greater Valley area from 13U up to 15 & under playing as EAST Alabama Baseball. His work continued to draw notice earning him the opportunity to join the VHS baseball program in an Assistant Coaches role for both the varsity and J.V. teams in 2012. By 2013, his role expanded for Rams baseball as continued in a varsity assistant coaching capacity, but also as the Head Junior High School Coach. From 2014-2017, Coach Meadows served on the varsity baseball staff for VHS as an assistant coach.
In 2018, Coach Meadows coached a Columbus, Georgia travel baseball program serving players from both Alabama and Georgia. From 2019 to 2021, Coach Meadows united with another VHS grad named Corey McDonald to re-establish the East Alabama Baseball program beginning with a 12U team and eventually expanding to four age group teams. The program utilized an indoor training facility in Lanett to prepare players during the off season.
Coach Meadows believes one of his areas of personal strength’s is coaching infielders which seems to come naturally as his background throughout his own prep and collegiate experience was infield play. Coach Meadows emphasized that his own personal philosophy for coaching players is to help them develop into being better young men by using the game of baseball as a tool to work towards reaching your goals. “It’s one way to help players realize that nothing worthwhile is going to come easy in life stated Meadows.” On a personal level, Coach Meadows is a huge Atlanta Braves fan who like many across the south, enjoyed watching them win it all in 2021. However, he is even more so just a huge fan of the game of baseball itself.
Superintendent, Casey Chambley noted that Coach Meadows has actively committed himself over the years to either following or directly working with the Rams program. He has watched these kids play, mature and grow up noting that many of the current players on the squad had played for Coach Meadows over the years in his East Alabama Baseball program. Valley High School Principal, Montray Thompson noted the strong ties that Coach Meadows has in coaching baseball in the Valley community make him a natural fit to move into the Head Varsity Coaches role for the program during this transition. Additionally, VHS Athletic Director, Adam Hunter believes that Coach Meadows will bring a stability to the program that will help the players connect to the history of successes enjoyed by the Rams baseball from as far back as the team’s quarterfinal run in 1993.
