Cooper Farris retires as MGCCC baseball coach

Cooper Farris

Coming up two wins shy of the 700 victory plateau, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College baseball coach Cooper Farris is retiring from a job he’d held since 1990. Farris, the son of longtime Gulf Coast baseball coach Ken “Curly” Farris, leaves with an all-time record of 698-376-1. That includes 15 MACJC South Division titles, 18 state tournament appearances, 19 trips to the Region 23 Tournament, and one trip to the NJCAA National Tournament in 1991. Farris’s teams also won two MACJC state championships and finished second in the state eight times and in Region 23 five times. He’s also been selected MACJC Coach of the Year twice.

"Cooper has committed 20 years to MGCCC's baseball program,” said Dr. Mary Graham, vice president of the college’s Perkinston Campus. “We wish him the best as he moves on to another chapter in his life."

Former Major League Baseball standout Matt Lawton and current MLB players Fred Lewis (San Francisco Giants) and Tony Sipp (Cleveland Indians) played under Farris while at Gulf Coast along with a long list of players that went on to compete at all levels of professional baseball.

The 2009 Bulldogs won the MACJC South Division title with a 32-17 record but fell to Holmes in a best-of-three playoff series May 1-2. Bulldog pitcher Clint Dempster led the NJCAA in strikeouts during the regular season with 101 while freshman Jeremy Hill led the nation in RBI’S with 70.

“Under Cooper’s direction, the MGCCC baseball program has produced many successful teams and quality players,” said Ladd Taylor, Gulf Coast athletic director. “I wish him success in all future endeavors.”

Taylor also added that the college will soon begin the search for a new head baseball coach as early as next week.