Rival turned ally: Long joins Dragons coaching staff
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He may have gone to a rival high school, but he’s glad to be at Clinton High School as an assistant baseball coach.
“I’ve grown to love Clinton,” said Long, who was recently named an assistant coach for the Dragons and head Coach Rob Stacy.
“I’ve grown to love the staff and I’ve grown to love the community and I’ve grown to love the kids,” he said.
“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else and I love Coach Stacy. We’re friends and I used to talk to him every other day, if not every day. And I’m sure we’ll talk every day now.
“As far as coaches [go], Coach Stacy is one of the best people that I’ve ever been around,” Long said. “I’m proud to be a Dragon and I’m exactly where I want to be.”
Long was a star pitcher at Powell High School when the Dragons and Panthers were District 3-AAA rivals.
He played at Powell for head coaches Jeff Inman (now the softball coach at Powell) and Jay Scarbro. Long graduated from Powell in 2014.
That year, the Panthers made it to the sectional round of the state playoffs but came up short of making the state tournament, losing to Kingsport Dobyns-Bennett.
After his stellar high school career, he went on to play college baseball at East Tennessee State and Carson-Newman.
Long began his coaching career in 2020 at Powell, working for head Coach Josh Warner. He left his alma mater before the beginning of the 2022 season. He’s been with Clinton’s program ever since.
He helped out in 2022 and had a limited role in 2023, working with Clinton’s infielders.
Long will serve as Clinton’s pitching coach in 2025.
“I’m looking forward to the 2025 season and I’m looking forward to working with these kids,” he said.
“We have great kids. They work hard and that makes the job easier.
“You have the want-to versus the have-to mentality, and our kids want to. They want to play and they all work hard.”
Long and Stacy have become close friends, and together the duo is part of a high school baseball renaissance in the county.
“When I played, Clinton was in our league, and nothing against the coaches they had then, but you went in thinking and knowing that you were supposed to win that game,” Long said. “What Coach Stacy has done has been absolutely phenomenal.”
Since Stacy arrived in Clinton, the Dragons no longer represent an easy win on the schedule.
Similarly, Coach Josh Boynton has guided Anderson County’s program to unprecedented success. Those two schools have remained league rivals in District 4-AAA.
The Mavericks won the Region 2-AAA championship in 2022 and have made great strides under Boynton’s leadership.
“We are rivals and the kids are going to talk trash,” Long said. “I talked trash when I played, but it’s good for baseball in Clinton and Anderson County when both teams are good. I know Coach Boynton and he’s a great baseball coach.
“Both teams have really been competitive over the past three years.”
Just down the road in Oak Ridge, the Wildcats, under Coach Travis Free (who arrived in the county the same year Stacy took over at Clinton) have authored a success story of their own.
ORHS won the District 3-4A Tournament title as a No. 3 seed. It went on to be runner-up in the region before winning a best-of-three state sectional series at Sevier County to qualify for state for the first time since 1972. The ‘Cats won a game at the state tournament and finished with a school record 28 games.
“Travis Free has done a great job at Oak Ridge,” Long said. “They used to be horrible.
“I used to hate Travis because he was the pitching coach at Dobyns-Bennett when they ended my high school career. But he came and gave me a hug and told me what a gutsy performance I had against them. We’ve been friends ever since.”
Stacy is a mentor for Long, but the assistant coach has found another mentor in Clinton. Longtime Dragons Coach Alvin Taylor is still around the program, and Long isn’t about to let Taylor’s knowledge go to waste.
“Coach Taylor is such a great guy, and anytime I have a question or need advice about baseball, I call him,” Long said. “I’ve called him a few times this summer.”
Away from the diamond, Long is a family man and an avid golfer.
“I just love being with my family, and I love to watch golf and I love to play golf,” he said. “And I guess that makes sense.”
Like golf, baseball doesn’t provide much instant gratification. Baseball, however, is a sport predicated on failure, at least offensively.
“That’s why baseball is the greatest sport in the world,” Long said. “You can go 3-for-10 and you’re doing well.
“If you’re a quarterback and you go 3-for-10, you’re probably going to be on the bench. If you’re a basketball player and you shoot 3-for-10, I don’t think you’ll be playing very long.”