Photo by Jared Thomas

      By Robert Wilson

      Hill Denson – the winningest coach in Belhaven University baseball program history and a member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame – believes his former school has hit a home run with the hiring of Patrick Robey as its new head coach.

      “Patrick is a great addition and coach for Belhaven. “He’s a good ‘un,” said Denson, who won 613 games, six conference championships and one NAIA World Series appearance in his 19 seasons at Belhaven before retiring in 2019. He coached for 53 years, winning 1,295 games, including 1,069 games at the collegiate level, 19 at Belhaven and 14 at Southern Miss and was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2018.

      So when Denson believes Robey can coach, he knows what he’s talking about. 

“Patrick’s dad and I were good friends,” Denson said. “We started a deer camp out from Hattiesburg with a few other guys about 1989. Patrick grew up in that camp with us from a little tot through college. I watched him grow up to be the man he is today. He learned what to do, how to act, how to follow rules, how to be a good hunter, how to be respectful and how to be a man. I am both proud of and for him.

“I know Patrick’s teams are well coached. He has all the makings of being a good coach. If you look around, most of the successful coaches around grow up hunting and fishing and are real men. They do things the right way. He will do well at Belhaven. They made a great hire.”

Robey comes from Madison Central where he led the Jaguars to three state championships in nine seasons, including this season when he won the MHSAA Class 7A state title and was named the Performance Therapy/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Coach of the Year.

Robey replaced Andrew Gipson, who became the head coach at the University of New Orleans.

“I’ve followed and respected Patrick’s work for years, both his track record with player development and his competitive success,” Belhaven athletic director Scott Little said in a school release. “The more I’ve had the chance to get to know him personally, the more I knew I wanted him to lead our program moving forward. Our young men will benefit greatly from his leadership and coaching both on and off the field.”

Robey wasn’t looking to leave Madison Central. The former Taylorsville High, Jones County Junior College and Delta State third baseman-shortstop had had great success and this year’s state championship might have been his best coaching job at Madison Central, going from not one of the favorites to state champions. 

He led the Jaguars to a 27-8 record, a No. 2 ranking in Mississippi and a No. 44 national ranking by MaxPreps and its first state title since 2021 when Madison Central finished ranked No. 1 in the nation and Robey was named National Coach of the Year. They won eight of 10 playoff games and defeated defending state champion Brandon in three games in the state championship series. 

Photo by Brad Bridges

I had zero intentions to ever leave MC,” Robey said. “Belhaven reached out to me 100 percent. God opened the door for this opportunity. It was crystal clear that it was His plan. (Belhaven president) Dr. (Roger) Parrott’s vision and mission along with Mr. Scott Little lined up with mine. Kids are kids and they all want to be coached. Some resist challenges because they aren’t challenged at home, but they usually tend to appreciate it later in life. Belhaven baseball has a history of great leadership. I’ve known and admired coach Denson since I was 15 years old. I’ve known him on a personal level, probably more than most. Coach Denson has always been someone I can talk to for advice. He has been a big mentor to me as he has to many others. I grew up in that deer camp with Coach Denson, (former Southern Miss coaches) Scott Berry and Corky Palmer and many others. I guess you could say I grew up with baseball in my blood. We have all stayed in contact ever since. Coach Gipson did a great job and I have the utmost respect for him. Gip has been a big help to me in this transition. The players respected him highly. Our styles won’t differ. I am working to establish relationships with the current players and will fill in the gaps where needed. At the top of my priority list is building my coaching staff and building trust and relationships with our players. The experience I had in high school is crucial. We have to learn from our past failures and mistakes and just get better all around. I feel like I’ve done a few things in my past that can benefit the development of the next group of young men I have been entrusted to lead.”

     After Robey’s successful playing days – all-state junior college in 1996 and all Gulf South Conference in 1997 – he was a graduate assistant under Delta State coach Mike Kinnison for two seasons and one year as an assistant at East Central Community College. Robey was head coach at South Panola for 10 seasons (six playoff appearances) and Lafayette for three years (three district titles and a state semifinal appearance) before coming to Madison Central nine years ago.

      Not many coaches can say they won three state titles in the past nine seasons.

      “Every one of my championship runs have been different,” Robey said. “This team was ultra-challenging because we had to manage so many different personalities. We had a handful of guys that had to be petted on and maybe were not necessarily ‘all in.’ And then we had the great majority that just wanted to win the game. The definition of a team and the ultimate job of a coach is to get 80 percent of your guys doing the right thing 80 percent of the time and I feel like we as a staff were able to do that. We didn’t have a bunch of kids that were ranked by the ’pay for your ranking’ organizations. We had a bunch of kids that played for one another. A few will play college and maybe pro ball one day, a lot will just go to school, and some will drive heavy machinery the rest of their lives.”

      “Coach Robey does a great job of letting us assistant coaches do our jobs,” said Madison Central associate head coach Hunter Twitty, who has been with Robey for seven years. “He doesn’t micromanage us and lets us do our thing as long as it fits within the scope of what we are trying to do as a program. Coach Robey also does a great job of keeping things simple for the guys. A lot of times coaches can overcomplicate things and overcoach to a degree, but he does a good job of simplifying things and letting the kids play to their strengths.”

      “I think Coach Robey used the game of baseball to show us how the game of life works out,” Madison Central senior outfielder Warren Hutchinson said. “He always made sure that we get the little things down right and the big things will fall into place if we do the little things. He also emphasized the fact that baseball is a game of failure, bad stuff is going to happen. You have to learn how to deal with the bad, reflect on it, and still go to work the next day. It’s not about what happens to you, but it’s about how you respond to what happens.”

      “Coach Robey is a coach that does things the right way and loves his players,” Northwest Rankin coach KK Aldridge said. “We talk regularly, and we both give each other encouragement when things are tough and congratulate each other after big wins. It’s good to have like-minded coaches that you can talk baseball wit, but even better is when you have guys like Patrick that you can talk faith, family and life with. He did a tremendous job this year of staying the course and getting his team to play the best at the right time. When you do things the right way, that tends to happen.”

      Robey and his wife, Ginger, celebrated their 23rd wedding anniversary June 15. Robby’s parents, Ken and Patti Robey, live in Philadelphia, Miss. Robey’s sister, Heather Ballard, and her family live in Starkville. The Robeys have two children, son Walker and daughter Cora. Walker was a senior catcher and first baseman on this year’s Madison Central team and signed with College World Series team Murray State. Cora is a rising sophomore and a cheerleader and honor student at Madison Central.