Ayers takes over Cass High baseball program

Tim Ayers, who has coached baseball and softball off-and-on at Cass High School for the past dozen years, has been hired as the new head coach for the Colonels’ baseball program.

Ayers follows Adam Williams who resigned in late April following the Colonels’ 15-15 season.

An assistant on Williams’ staff as the primary hitting coach, Ayers was selected by principal Mike Nelson and athletic director Dr. Nicky Moore over a large number of applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds.

“I’m excited for the opportunity,” Ayers said. “We will continue many of the good things coach Williams started but I want to implement some other things that I think will help the program become even better.”

Ayers, a special education teacher at Cass High School, played four years of college baseball as both a catcher and a first baseman. He started his collegiate career at Glen Oaks CC in Michigan and then played at Georgetown College in Kentucky.

He has previous coaching experience with Division I IUPUI and has served as a hitting instructor with East Cobb Baseball and 6-4-3 Baseball Academy.

Other than summer ball, this will be Ayers’ first head coaching stint.

Ayers’ plans to keep the existing coaching staff at Cass intact. Matt Thompson, Jamey Gaddy, and head football coach Bobby Hughes will remain on the staff plus Ayers expects to add one more coach.

“We are lifting four days a week with the football team this summer,” noted Ayers. “We will spend plenty of time in the cage and do some field work with a heavy focus on fundamentals.”

Cass will return several players in 2018 that are involved with summer travel programs.

Steven Spell is playing with Titans Baseball. Nathan Smith, Bryson Markley, and Logan Nelson are playing with Nelson Baseball School. Gavin Young is part of the BDB Coyotes, Matt Shook is playing with 9 Stars Saints, and six players are playing with the North Georgia Snipers including high school returner Blaine Ingram.

The Colonels lost three key seniors to college programs at the end of this past season, including top pitcher Jake Collum and leading hitter Bailey Campbell.

Ayers will begin working immediately to find those replacements this off-season.

“We have to find and develop some pitching,” Ayers continued. “Evan Hinton is the only returning player that pitched in region play. We have to get our kids to compete all the time. My expectations are that we be known as a blue collar, hard-nosed team. We have to get tougher.”