Battle Mountain baseball coach accepts full-time position at Emmanuel College

Harrison Stevens, Battle Mountain’s varsity baseball coach since 2020, has accepted a full-time assistant baseball coaching position at Emmanual College in Georgia for the 2022-23 school year. Stevens and his wife, Megan — both lifelong valley residents who graduated from Eagle Valley High School, will head to Franklin Springs the first week of August.

“I’m super thankful for the opportunity I was given at Battle Mountain and that I was able to play a small role in some of the success that we had. I’ve learned a lot from the players, I’ve learned a lot as a coach. We’ve had a lot of really good support from the community, from parents and the administration,” Stevens said on Wednesday.

“This is where Megan and I grew up — so leaving home and this community has made the decision really difficult — but we’re definitely excited for this adventure and next chapter in our lives.”

Megan Stevens is a physical education teacher at Eagle Valley Middle School.

“I’m happy to have her as my partner, as the person I have in my life that I get to share this adventure with,” her husband said, adding that the couples’ shared faith and trust in God has anchored their decision-making process.

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“We prayed a lot about the right opportunity to open up; we know that God played a hand in it,” he said.

Most open collegiate positions during this spring’s hiring season were volunteer or part-time. Fully invested in his stable teaching and coaching situation in the valley, a patient intentionality backed Stevens’ move.

“For us, if you never challenge yourself, you’ll never know what you got and you’ll never know what you’re capable of, and so that’s kind of the way we’re approaching this,” he said of his family’s mentality.

“We would be more than happy to stay and continue to do what we do — because we both love teaching and coaching in the valley — but it’s just time for us to move on and challenge ourselves in different regards and do it together and do it as a unit.”

Stevens said he’s thought about collegiate coaching since his own playing days at Colby Community College in Kansas and Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri, fascinated by the recruiting and player development process. He will serve as Emmanuel’s recruiting coordinator, infield and hitting coach alongside manager Jeff Kilgore and pitching coach Brandon Hennessey. His players’ ages might be different as he takes “a big step career-wise,” but his core principles aren’t.

“Whether it’s at the high school or college level, my why for coaching doesn’t change,” he said.

“It’s still to make a positive impact on young men and be a good role model and prepare athletes for life, because baseball doesn’t last forever.”

Stevens expressed gratitude to athletic director Gentry Nixon for opening his first coaching door and praised Rob Parish and other Battle Mountain coaches like Dave Cope for helping him develop his philosophy.

“Those are lessons I’m going to bring with me,” he said, adding that his goodbyes to players, teachers and staff has been one of the hardest parts of leaving.

“My goal is to continue to learn, continue to grow. If nothing else, this decision is based off the opportunity to learn and grow — as a coach but also as a person.”

That message, albeit hard to deliver to a group of boys he’s grown close to in his three-year tenure, was passed along to his athletes as he announced his decision in a personal meeting after a recent summer league practice.

“So that’s what I encouraged my players to do too when we talked,” Stevens recounted.

“I said, in life, when you get an opportunity that feels right, you believe is in your best interest and is an opportunity to learn and grow — take it. Go after it and follow your dreams because you don’t want to look back and regret and think what if?”

Stevens’ desire is to remain a resource to his players and the Vail Valley baseball community he has played a pivotal role in growing.

“I’d love to keep my relationships with the baseball community in the valley,” he said.

“I also told the boys last night, even if you don’t want to play college baseball, I’m still here for you if you need to talk about anything or need help or want to talk about high school baseball and how to be the best player possible.”

In 2020, Stevens’ team only practiced for 1.5 weeks before COVID shut everything down. 2021 was a shortened, 16-game season, so 2022 was his first full, 23-game varsity schedule. The Huskies went 13-11.

“Even in that short amount of time, I feel like we were able to accomplish some great things at Battle Mountain and get the program moving in the right direction and really just get the community and local youth excited about playing baseball at the high school level,” he said.

“We were able to create a good community of baseball people who want to provide good opportunities for our youth baseball players.”

His overall message to players matched what he hopes was his legacy as their mentor.

“It’s best to be able to look back and have no regrets and say I gave my 100%, I was respectful, I was a good person, I contributed to every team and community I was a part of and I opened every opportunity possible for myself just by doing my best on a daily basis,” he said.

“Battle Mountain baseball is bigger than any singular player, person or coach. There were a lot of coaches before me and there will be a lot after me. All you can do is make the biggest impact you can during your short time so you can look back and say, ‘I gave it all I could.’ And that’s the way I look back on the last three years.”