After a search that stretched nearly three months, Crestview has its new baseball coach, and it’s a name familiar to Bulldog Nation: Cory McSween.
- McSween is a Crestview graduate who played for the program before returning to serve as an assistant with baseball, an assistant football coach, and the Lady Bulldogs’ head softball coach in 2014.
“I’m really excited for the opportunity,” McSween said. “I played for Coach Gillis, I’ve known him for a really long time, he’s helped me out a lot in my career and having the opportunity to come in and continue what he’s built is a real honor.”
His head coaching résumé began in 2017 at Vernon, where he inherited a program that had won a combined 15 games over the previous two seasons. He led the Yellowjackets to 17 wins in his lone year at the helm. In 2020, he took over at Laurel Hill, serving as the Hoboes’ skipper through 2024 and leading the program to its best seasons in years.
McSween has work to do.
He has big shoes to fill. He replaces Tim Gillis, his former coach and boss, who served as the Bulldogs’ skipper for a quarter century before stepping down in April. The roster has also experienced turnover in the aftermath of Gillis’ retirement.
- “That’s big. They are big shoes to fill, so we’re going to have to do it our own way,” McSween said. “But I just think there’s been so much consistency in the program for a really long time and I feel like I’ve been a part of that. I’ve helped him out. I’ve been on staff for a year, and our goal is to just put out a product on the field that the community is proud of.”
Part of that consistency, McSween said, will mean strengthening the pipeline from the area’s middle schools.
“We’re going to reach out to them. I plan on contacting both coaches and they do a really good job in developing players,” McSween said. “Coach Armstrong at Shoal River is a former Crestview player, he’s doing good things over there. Obviously, we will have Pineview, so we’ll wait to see how that shakes out having three teams, but we definitely want to get everyone on the same page.”
As for how he plans to navigate the modern era of player movement, McSween said the focus will be on the kids who want to be Bulldogs.
“We just want to play with the kids that want to play for Crestview that are committed to being Bulldogs and that’s the kids we’re worried about,” he said. “We’re not worried about who’s going there and who’s coming there. We’re just going to take the kids that want to pour into the program and do the best we can.”
The Bulldogs find themselves in a district with Navarre and Pace, the latter of which McSween called one of the best programs in the area. He kept Year 1 expectations grounded but pointed to a clear goal.
- “Year 1, we just want to be competitive. We want to be playing our best game and we want to be playing our best baseball at the end of the year,” McSween said. “Our district this year is Navarre and Pace, and obviously Pace is one of, if not the best, teams in the area. So that will be a good measuring stick. We want to put ourselves in a position to win a district championship.”
Ultimately, McSween wants the program to be defined by how the Bulldogs carry themselves.
“We want to be known for people that run on and off the field, that do things the right way, that respect the game of baseball and play it the way that should be played.”
