Houston out at Berkeley Prep
Berkeley Prep baseball coach Justin Houston resigned from his post last week, the school's athletic director Bobby Reinhart confirmed Thursday, but will stay on staff as a physical education teacher.
Reinhart, who said he received Houston's resignation last Tuesday, said Houston resigned for personal reasons. Houston coached the Buccaneers for four seasons. Berkeley advanced to the region semifinals twice in that span, in Class 2A in 2005 and in Class 3A in 2007, but the Bucaneers went 10-16 this season.
Reinhart said the school will immediately begin a search for a new coach -- ideally hiring a coach who would be on staff at the school, he said. "There's no rush," Reinhart said. "We want to do out due diligence because baseball season is a long way off."
Houston could not be immediately reached on his cell phone.
-- EDUARDO A. ENCINA
The St. Petersburg Times High School Sports blog is written and compiled by the Times preps sports staff from Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties. We invite your participation in the comments area.
I saw BP play this year. They have a lot of wannabe coaches who sit in the stands. This will be a tough job to fill.
Posted by: | June 10, 2008 at 02:20 PM
Things are looking up at BPS with a ton of new players joining the Legion "B" team in the past couple of weeks. It's a young team with only 2 or 3 Seniors, but a great time to rebuild. Keep your eye out this Spring for Senior Tony Pikos.
Posted by: Buc | June 10, 2008 at 02:51 PM
Just wanted to go on the record saying that Justin Houston is a wealth of baseball knowledge, with the ability to teach it to youth, the ability to motivate kids both on and off the field, and his demands for high expectations build success. I hope parents have the opportunity at some point in the future to have their kids coached by a devoted coach like J. Houston.
Posted by: Biased Yes, Good Points Absolutely | August 27, 2008 at 05:45 PM