Photo: Scott Brackett and wife Katie pose for a photo after he was hired as head baseball coach and career prep teacher at Sardis High School during a recent meeting of the Etowah County Schools Board of Education.(Submitted photo)
By Chris McCarthy, Publisher/Editor
After 16 years as an assistant and head baseball coach at Gadsden City High School, Scott Brackett is heading up U.S. Hwy. 431 to Sand Mountain.
Brackett was hired as head baseball coach and career prep teacher at Sardis High School at a recent meeting of the Etowah County Schools Board of Education. He replaces Kevin Vinson, who resigned in July to take an assistant baseball coaching position at Southside High School, his alma mater.
Brackett said that Sardis football coach B.J. Brooks mentioned the position was open while the two were having a phone conversation on a different matter.
“B.J. was one of the first kids that I coached when I moved back to Gadsden. It kind of went from there at warp speed, because that conversation took place on a Wednesday night and I told them I’d accept the position that following Sunday.”
Brackett takes a program that made the state playoffs all seven years that Vinson was coach. The 2024 Lions went 22-13, won a fourth straight area title, a third straight Eto-wah County Schools championship and lost to eventual 5A state champion Alexandria in the quarterfinal round. The 2023 team went 30-8 and finished as the Class 5A state runners-up, while the 2022 squad went 20-12.
“Keven did an absolute phenomenal job,” said Brackett. “He was most definitely the face of this program. Kevin is a class act, and I wish him the best at Southside.”
Brackett pointed to the community support as a deciding factor in his taking the job.
“Since I’ve been here, so many people have called me and stopped by when I’m at the school. I came up for the (state quarterfinal) series against Alexandria this year, and it was an atmosphere that’s hard to describe. There were to many people there that you couldn’t move. It was almost like a football game from a crowd standpoint.”
Brackett’s core values for the program are simple.
“Commitment, hard work and accountability. I’ve already talked with the players, and they’re eager and excited to get to work. A lot of them play football, which I think is a good thing. A lot of the players from last year are still here, and the 11-12 [age] team was really good this season.”
Brackett’s roots in the Sardis community run deep.
“My dad’s side of the family is from here, and when I was growing up, I spent a lot of my summertime up here fishing with my uncles and cousins.”
Prior to Gadsden City, Brackett taught and coached baseball at Oxford High School for three years and at Columbus (Ga.) High School for two years.
