Head Coach Bobby Williams


Who Is Coach Williams?

Coach Williams was Brazoswood's head coach, replacing legendary Head Coach Bill Poland. Coach Williams knows what it takes to win, having played on the 1979 Brazoswood State Semifinalist team and being Assistant Coach on Bill Poland's Championship teams. Coach Williams has been involved with the Brazoswood program for at least 20 years of his life. 2013 marks Coach Williams's fourteenth year at the helm of the Buc baseball program.

Profile:

Head Coach- Brazoswood Baseball program since 2000
Brazosport ISD Coach/Teacher for 22 years

Graduated:

Brazoswood High School- 1979
Pan American University- 1985

Family:

Wife- Cynthia, three children:
Cullen, Cody, and Carly

Honors:

1979- State AAAA Semifinalist on Brazoswood Baseball team
1979- Brazosport Facts- All-Star Player
1992- Assistant Coach, State AAAAA Champion Brazoswood Buccaneers
2002- Brazosport Facts- All-Brazoria County Coach of the Year
2003- Head Coach Region III Semifinalist Bucs
2003- Brazosport Facts- All-Brazoria County Coach of the Year
2003- District 24-AAAAA Coach of the Year
2004- Head Coach Region III Quarterfinalist Bucs

2009- Head Coach Region III Finalist Bucs

2011- Brazosport Facts-All-Brazoria County Coach of the Year

2011- Houston 5A Baseball Coach of the Year

2011- Head Coach of the State AAAAA Champions

*Coach Williams solidified his place in Brazoswood and Texas baseball history in 2011, winning his own State 5A Championship outright.*

 

Houston High School Sports, Lonnie King- Amid the celebration following his team’s UIL Class 5A state baseball championship, the highest single-season team honor among the largest schools in the state of Texas, Brazoswood Buccaneer head coach Bobby Williams was asked how he and his team would celebrate their victory.

“I don’t know, yet,” the coach said with a chuckle. “It’s our first attempt at this.”

As for his team, Williams was being honest. But Williams was being a little modest about his own experience in Brazoswood state tournament runs.

The Brazoswood Buccaneers now have been to four state baseball championship tournaments in school history. Williams has been a significant part of three of them.

* * * * *

Bobby Williams played shortstop on the 1979 team that made it to the Class 4A (largest at that time) tournament. That season featured three Houston-area teams—Brazoswood, Spring and Baytown Sterling.

As a player, Williams’ title dream wouldn’t be fulfilled. The 1979 Bucs lost in the state semifinal and Spring defeated Baytown Sterling in the championship game.

But Williams would return home to the Freeport-Clute area after college and his playing days at Pan American University (now UT-Pan American, in Edinburg) were done, and eventually became an assistant coach to head coach Bill Poland.

By that time, Poland’s 1984 Brazoswood squad had already delivered the first state baseball title to the school and community.

Those Bucs, led by players like Kevin Garner and Troy Neel, had defeated a Cy-Fair Bobcat team led by a shortstop-pitcher named Woody Williams in the title game, 5-3.

Williams became the pitching coach for Poland and held that post when the 1992 Buccaneer team made it back to the state tournament.

And that Brazoswood team pitched like no other state tournament team had ever before—nor has ever since.

The 1992 Bucs are the only team in the history of the state tournament to throw two no-hitters.

Mark Senterfitt blanked El Paso Coronado, 6-0 in 6 innings, in the semifinal game. Justin Bowles, Jason Ferguson and Senterfitt combined to defeat South San Antonio, 5-1, in the championship game. Neither opponent managed a base hit.

There have been no other no-hitters thrown in the Class 5A tournament since then.

“There were a lot of comparisons between the ’92 team and this team,” Williams said after this year’s title game.

“There was great chemistry,” he continued. “There were great kids in the program that worked their tails off every day and they didn’t get to the state tournament just by pure talent.”

“They made their way to state tournament by working their way to state tournament day-in, day-out. And they earned every bit of it.”

* * * * *

Now, Williams has a title of his own as a head coach in his eleventh season at the helm of the Buccaneer ship. And, to hear him tell it, it is as special as if he had played for the trophy himself.

“It’s tough to beat a state tournament as a player, because you actually get to go out there and hit the ball and catch the ball, and all that kind of stuff,” he said while his players hoisted the championship trophy a few yards away.

“This one is sweet, obviously, because it’s my first one as head coach,” Williams said, adding, “but what really makes this one special is the group of kids we have.”

The 2011 Buccaneer lineup was dominated by seniors. Third baseman Dalton Perry was the only underclassman to wind up with regular playing time by the time the Bucs determined who they were as a team.

And it wasn’t obvious who they would be when the season began.

Williams recalled that Brazoswood started out the season with a lot of unanswered questions and doubts in their own minds.

Questions ranged from where players would fit in the batting order to what position they would or could play in the field.

“Kids had doubts about whether they could hit off the good pitchers in the district and in the state,” he said. “Everything was just a progression, a little bit at a time.”

But, as the results show, progress they did.

“By the time we got to the end of district,” Williams stated, “I think everybody was pretty confident about what we were doing—pretty confident about their swinging (the bat) and pretty confident about our pitching.”

The state championship game victory raised Williams’ coaching record to 257-115. No. 257 may stick with him for a while.

And the memories of this team may linger even longer with the coach.

“What can you say about (the 2011 team)?” he asked before immediately providing the answer. “They did everything they needed to do to get to this point and to follow through with their goals.”

“Now, we’re going to have fun.”