By By BRUCE HIXON-Sports Editor
While everybody has aspirations, not everybody gets to fulfill those dreams.
Although it took Darrell Blevins 11 years to finally achieve his goal, he now feels the journey has been well worth the time.
Blevins achieved his dream of being a head baseball coach this past week when he was hired as the new skipper of the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawks.
Blevins takes over for Jim Morrill, who was released of his position as part of a job consolidation move by the school in April. Morrill eventually guided JDCC to the Alabama Community College Conference south division championship and a 41-16 record. Morrill has since accepted the head baseball coaching position at Calhoun Community College.
While Blevins is new to JDCC, he is hardly a stranger when it comes to the ACCC. Blevins spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Faulkner State. Prior to that Blevins had a five-year stop as an assistant coach at Alabama Southern and a one-year stay at Wallace State-Dothan. All three of those schools compete in the ACCC along with JDCC.
The 37-year-old Blevins, who graduated from Austin High School in Decatur and got degrees from Auburn University at Montgomery and Troy State at Montgomery, broke into the coaching ranks in 1990 as an assistant baseball coach at Robert E. Lee High School. After six years at Robert E. Lee, Blevins got a chance to move into the college ranks and served one season as a volunteer assistant at Faulkner University.
Blevins' hiring comes after a two-month stretch that has seen multiple incoming freshmen and sophomore-to-be players leave the JDCC program while the school searched for Morrill's replacement. At this time only 15 players remain in the program.
Although several of what would be carryovers from last season's team have left, Blevins thinks he can build off the success Morrill had.
While Blevins, who also serves as third vice-president in the Alabama Baseball Coaches Association, feels the JDCC baseball facility is adequate, he thinks there is room for improvements.
Blevins and wife Denise are the parents of two sons, 22-month-old Kyle and three-week old Craig.