Rod Huff
Rod Huff is a successful business executive with 30 years experience in the operations and administration area. He began his baseball coaching experience as an assistant coach when his son, Austin, was five years old. His first head coaching experience began in 1995 when his company, Sparrow Records, sponsored his 7- and 8-year-old coach-pitch team. That year, as a first-year coach, his team, nicknamed the Birds, went 15-2. That season ushered in somewhat of a dynasty in his Brentwood, Tennessee, community, where he is known as one of the winningest coaches ever in the local league. His nine-year record as a head coach includes five league championships and four runner-up titles. Huff took his operational and administrative executive abilities to the ball field and came up with a winning formula of organization, feedback, and motivation, which had parents and players alike asking to be drafted by him every year. His players have labeled this year the "purple year," as this was the first and only year that the color of their team jerseys varied from their traditional teal. Huff ended his coaching career following an unprecedented undefeated regular season in 2003. Their only two losses came during the postseason in a double-elimination tournament that found the Birds wounded and missing their starting shortstop, catcher, second baseman, and two pitchers—a tough way to end a season. Academically, the author holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and a Master of Business Administration from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He resides in Brentwood, Tennessee, with his wife of 36 years, Lisa, who is a well-known interior designer in the Nashville area. They have two children, a son, Austin, who is a senior at the University of Missouri, majoring in broadcast journalism, and a daughter, Whitney, who is a recent graduate of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. Huff has had the joy of seeing both of his children run onto Division I football fields—his daughter as a cheerleader at UK, and his son as a Mizzou football player. He values his family life, and is a deacon in his local church in Tennessee.
