Martinsville Mustangs assistant coach Taylor Lockhart smiles as he brings gear back to the dugout. Photo provided by Taylor Lockhart

In the spring of 2018, Taylor Lockhart coached as an assistant on the Hall-Dale baseball team that won the Class C championship. That summer, he coached the Augusta American Legion team for the second straight season.

From there, he knew he was on to something.

“I decided, I’m young, I might as well take a shot at this coaching thing,” he said. “I decided I might as well go for it right now.”

That decision started a path up the coaching ladder that has taken Lockhart to different areas of the eastern and midwest United States. In March, the 24-year-old Lockhart, who played college baseball at the University of Maine Farmington, was hired as the first head coach of the Tri-City Chili Peppers, a team in the Coastal Plain League based in Colonial Heights, Virginia. The CPL is a league for college players in the summer, with teams in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.

“When I got the job, I was super pumped. I jumped right in. Everything they’re doing is what’s going to make us successful,” Lockhart said. “I’m going to have all the tools that a coach dreams of. I’m going to have all the technology, I’m going to have analytical interns that I can have. I get to hire my own assistants. … It’s really a coach’s dream. I’ve got everything I want, everything I need there.”

Lockhart, who’s working this spring as an assistant coach at Colby College, has experience in the CPL, having worked as an assistant for the Martinsville Mustangs in 2019 and the Wilson Tobs in 2020. He also worked as an assistant coach at Owens Community College in Ohio from the fall of 2018 to the spring of 2019 and at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia in the fall of 2019, but this will be his head coaching debut.

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Hampden-Sydney assistant coach Taylor Lockhart, right, coaches first base. Photo provided by Taylor Lockhart

“It’s something that I definitely wanted,” Lockhart said. “I’ve been a hitting coach in the league for two years, so I knew that I was ready. I’m just pumped that I got the opportunity.”

Lockhart will be coaching a team made up largely of Division I and II players at area colleges.

“I have guys from Virginia Tech, North Carolina, VCU, Coastal Carolina, Elon,” he said. “These are guys that are really looking to get drafted and play pro ball. … It’s guys who want to be seen by scouts, or guys who feel like they haven’t had enough exposure to scouts of MLB teams. We’re really looking to build a team of guys who we think can go pro and have that ability.”

For Lockhart, it continues a logical progression. As first a player and then as a coach, he’s known he’s wanted to stay around the sport.

“I just love baseball. I love everything about it. I had an off day yesterday and I spent the whole day just watching baseball,” he said. “I can’t get enough of it. In the profession of coaching baseball, your chances of getting full-time, it’s not high. But if I have even the slightest chance of that, I’m going to take it because it’s something that I love to do.”

The coaches with whom he’s worked saw someone who could run a team.

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“He has a really good baseball mind, and a feel for the game,” Hampden-Sydney head coach Jeff Kinne said. “In the not-too-distant future, he’s going to get a shot and he’s going to do well with it. … He has good knowledge for the game, and the guys enjoy him.”

Harry Markotay, Lockhart’s head coach at Wilson, said he would spend his free time either watching high school players or analyzing data.

Taylor Lockhart and his brother, Cole, show off the 2018 Class C state championship after Hall-Dale won the title. Cole was a pitcher and infielder for the team while Taylor was an assistant coach. Photo provided by Taylor Lockhart

“He brings a ton of energy, and coaches with a lot of passion. Guys love to play for him,” he said. “He’s definitely a guy you can consider a baseball nerd or a baseball nut. … We knew there was always going to be a chance that he’d get a head coaching opportunity, and that he was ready for it.”

Lockhart used networking and connections to get his career started. In the winter of 2017-18, UMF coach Chris Bessey introduced him to Edwin Thompson, the current Georgetown coach who was a UMF assistant and played for Bessey at Jay High School. Thompson urged him to accelerate his coaching climb by looking for college gigs, and helped him land the Hampden-Sydney and Colby jobs.

“Originally, my plan was to coach high school baseball and be a teacher,” he said. “He said ‘If you want a chance at coaching college baseball, you’ve got to do it right away.’ If you go the high school route, it’s hard to get in the college game after. … Ever since then, we’ve kept in contact. He’s been my mentor, really.”

Kinne backed Lockhart when he applied for the Tri-City job in November. In the spring, he heard that the team was interested.

“I’ve been really lucky to be on some of the best coaching staffs around,” he said. “They’re some of the best minds around, and I get to coach with them, you get to keep learning.”

As for where his path goes from here, Lockhart said he’s not looking too far ahead. But he’s excited to be where he is now.

“You get to coach in full stadiums with a crowd going nuts, high intensity,” he said. “It’s really a coach’s dream, what I get to do.”

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