Sports

Long time coming

• After 10 years as Westwood’s baseball coach — even enduring a forgettable 0-51 losing streak at one point — Al Timmerman now finds himself two wins from a state title.

Derek Barichello

Westwood coach Al Timmerman knows all about perseverance.

After all, Timmerman — now in his 10th season coaching Wildcats’ baseball team — has seen more bad years than good.

After volunteering for the job in 1998, between 2000 and 2004, Timmerman’s baseball team experienced an 0-51 losing streak, and up until this year, the program — under Timmerman’s guidance — had never won a playoff series.

But through it all, his coaching philosophy never wavered.

“I tell (my players) every year, ‘This is a game, have fun,’ ” Timmerman said Wednesday during his team’s practice for what has become both Westwood and Timmerman’s shining moment: The 2008 GISA Class A State Championship series, which begins Friday in Woodbury against Flint River Academy. “I always stress the values of hard work and team relationships. I want them to build team memories.”

That patience, meanwhile, has paid off.

Now, his Wildcats are playing in their first state championship since 1988 — the year they also last won a state title.

“The program has come a long way,” said Timmerman, whose Wildcats begin the best-of-three championship series Friday at 4 p.m. and conclude it Saturday at noon with Game 2. (Game 3, if necessary, immediately following).

“It’s good to see. It’s never been about wins so much as the guys are competing. We have some young guys too, so hopefully this sets a foundation for years to come.”

As far as memories, his players have made plenty during their magical run in this year’s GISA Class A state playoffs after entering with a shaky record — by postseason standards — of 8-8.

But one that still sticks in their heads as they take the field and pushes them is the first day of practice this season.

“Coach (Timmerman) always says at the beginning of the season, ‘You can take this as far as you want to take it, as long as you are willing to work,’ ” Westwood senior Brandon Johnson said. “He’s always expected us to work hard. This year the difference is we’ve been able to work for him.”

It is that confidence Timmerman has in his players that allowed them to realize what is possible as they have taken what looked like another sub-par season and record all the way to the state championship.

“He believes we can do anything, so we don’t want to disappoint,”

Westwood senior Ty Blackburn said. “He’s always showed that confidence in us and we give it right back to him and give him all the confidence in the world.”

Still to this day, Timmerman's reputation is not so much built on wins and losses as much it's built on character.

“He's a tremendous man,” Westwood athletic director Jennifer Good said. “He teaches respect and hard work. Those are values that go beyond the game. He’s the kind of guy you want your kid to play for.”

Timmerman even played high school baseball himself at Terrell Academy but stopped playing after enrolling at Georgia Southwestern University in Americus, the same school attended by fellow Southwest Georgia baseball coach Rod Murray of Deerfield, which also is playing in its own state title series beginning Friday against Tattnall Square.

Once he graduated from GSW, Timmerman joined the Westwood staff and decided shortly after that he wanted to get involved with athletics again — leading him to take on the baseball team’s head coaching position despite it not even being his favorite sport.

“I love all sports,” Timmerman said. “In this small school atmosphere, you have to be expected to do it all. I like baseball on a lot of levels but I’d say basketball is my favorite.”

With those losing seasons behind him now, including a 51-game losing streak he said Wednesday he’d “hoped people had forgotten about,” Timmerman looks back to those days and remembers the perseverance it took to get through them.

"It was a lot of five inning games and a lot of 10-run rules," Timmerman laughed. "I knew eventually it would get better if we kept working. It felt like a long time but I knew the wins were coming soon."

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