After 26 years and 4 titles at Pope, Holy Innocents’ coach hits rare milestone
Jeff Rowland tried to walk away from high school baseball. He just couldn’t do it.
After a 26-year run that yielded four state championships at Pope High School, Rowland was tired of dragging the field and chalking the baselines. He walked away and tried to live a life that wasn’t measured in increments of 60 feet and 6 inches.
Bored and listless, he took over as head baseball coach at Holy Innocents’ in 2024 and recently joined the small group of coaches with 600 career wins.
“Pope was an unbelievable place, and I didn’t think anything would be close,” he said. “But this school has been really special and really good to me. It’s a good place to be, for sure.”
According to the Georgia Dugout Club, only 21 coaches in Georgia history have reached 600 wins. This year Rowland, David Dinger of Heritage-Catoosa, Mike Strickland of Marist, and Chan Brown of Gainesville reached the milestone. Prince Avenue’s Doug Jones hit the mark on March 24. Tony Boyd of East Paulding is only two wins away.
Jerry Boatner of Clarke Central has the most wins at 1,211, but most of his success came from his time in Mississippi. Bobby Howard, who retired in 2024, won 1,069 games and 12 state titles, primarily at Columbus High School.
“Winning 600 games means I’m old as dirt,” Rowland said. “But I’ve been surrounded by a lot of good baseball players and good assistant coaches. I’m a product of what they bring to the table. There are a lot of great coaches out there who run circles around me, but good players and good coaches make you look a whole lot better and smarter than you are.”
Rowland, 60, grew up in Decatur and went to school at Shamrock High, where he blossomed under the wing of legendary coach John DeVore. DeVore won 377 games, mostly at Southwest DeKalb and later at Shamrock, where he became a mentor to Rowland.
When it came time to go to college, Rowland wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. He figured it out shortly after flunking an economics class in his first semester.
“Everybody back then put down business as a major, and when I failed economics, I realized business probably wasn’t for me,” Rowland said. “Coach DeVore was like my second dad and I can remember seeing him that summer, and we were driving down the road and we pulled over and just started talking. He said: ‘I think you’d be a good coach. You need to look into that.’ He really gave me some direction.”
After starting his teaching and coaching career at Mount Zion High School in Jonesboro, Rowland joined the Shamrock staff as assistant football, wrestling and baseball coach — working alongside DeVore. He remained there until 1995 when he got a career-changing break.
Rowland moved to Cobb County’s Pope High School and began to build a dynasty. His first game as head coach came against Alexander and Rowland said he remembers very little — other than being a little tightly wound and wanting to prove himself. It turned out OK. Pope won its first seven games, including a pair of no-hitters.
Rowland spent 26 years at Pope, winning state championships in 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2018, and finished second in 2016 and 2019.
“They gave me an opportunity and I jumped on it,” Rowland said. “I knew it was a great situation. They had been through three coaches in three years, and I can remember telling our players and our parents, ‘Y’all are going to have to drag me away from here, because this is where I want my kids to grow up.’ Fortunately, the good Lord took care of me and put me in a good spot.”
After leaving Pope, Rowland made an honest attempt at retiring. It just didn’t stick.
“For the first year and a half, I didn’t have to listen to bells ring at the same time every day and be a robot and go from class to class. That was enjoyable,” Rowland said. “But it reached a point of, you know, ‘What and I doing?’”
He even took a part-time job putting up signs and delivering lock boxes for a real estate agency — and going a little stir crazy. He was helping coach a summer league team but wasn’t sure he wanted to return to a full-time high school position — until he interviewed for a vacancy and didn’t get it.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it, and they ended up going in a different direction,” Rowland said. “After that I thought, ‘That would have been cool to do’ And I felt like I missed an opportunity.”
That January he saw a Twitter post that said Holy Innocents’ was looking for a baseball coach. He didn’t know anything about the school but soon found himself having a job interview. And since it’s hard to turn down coaches with four state championships on their resume, Rowland got the job.
Since taking over in 2024, the Bears have gone 22-14 and 22-10 with deep runs in the playoffs. This year’s team is 10-5 — losing three times in the last inning — and appears headed back to the postseason.
“It took us a minute to figure out some stuff, but we’ve been playing a lot better,” he said. “We actually won a game (against rival Pace Academy) on a walk-off home run, so we’ve figured out how to win a close game like that late. Now they’re starting to play with some confidence and the results are showing.”
About the Author
Stan Awtrey has been covering sports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1977. He currently writes about high school sports, Georgia State University athletics and golf.
