When you talk about a coach having a terrific year, usually that means a run deep into the playoffs and maybe getting their players some postseason accolades. For Belhaven head coach Kevin Griffin, 2024 was a truly amazing year both professionally and personally.
On the softball field, Griffin led his Blazers to a 47-10 record and and a national runner-up finish at the NCAA Division III World Series in Marshall, Texas. Soon after that, Griffin's family had a personal milestone, when his son, Konnor, was drafted ninth overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2024 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft.
"It was a whirlwind," Griffin said. "We had to find way to balance it all. Not just me and my family, but our players. They had to buy-in to everything. They did a great job."
With the college softball and high school baseball seasons running simultanously, Griffin obviously couldn't be in two places at once, so he would tune into Konnor's games whenever he could.
"I miss a lot of Konnor's high school stuff during his year and anytime they're playing we were pulling up the live stream on the bus and watch it during road trips," he explained. "I'm not sure (the team) would've let me NOT put it on the TV monitors on the bus. They were invested in it as much as I was."
Managing two pinnacle things — going to your sport's championship and getting your son drafted — would each be a challenge on their own. But both together, at the exact same time ... that's really something.
"Two years ago, when he started getting recruited, I didn't put Belhaven on the back burner, but I felt like I didn't give it all the attention I should with all the different angles people were hitting me up about my son," Griffin said. "I made it a point this past year to do what I need to do, but put the ball in someone else's court with advisors — let them handle that part of Konnor's life — and take that off my plate and my wife's plate, and just focus on softball. We saw our program skyrocket a bit from where we were two years ago to where we ended up."
Not that Belhaven was anything "bad" two years ago. The Blazers were 32-13, won the Collegiate Conference of the South championship and captured their NCAA Regional, before falling to Berry in the Super Regionals.
Last season, Belhaven lost to Maryville in their conference final, but again won their NCAA Regional and avenged their 2023 Super Regional loss to Berry by beating the Vikings on a ninth-inning walk-off homer by Anna Caime in the decisive third game of the best-of-three series to advance to their first World Series in school history.
"Leading up the the national tournament, I would field calls from scouts pregame, between games and at practices," Griffin said. "I made a decision to put all of that aside for one week (while they were at the finals in Texas), so I could focus on helping our girls achieve their goals. I feel like if I hadn't done that, our program probably wouldn't have accomplished what we did this past year."
At the World Series, the Blazers won five of their eight games, with the only losses coming to eventual national champion East Texas Baptist. Belhaven opened with a 5-2 win over Case Western Reserve and lost a winner's bracket game to the Tigers, 3-2, on the first day, then won four straight, including a 4-3 victory over East Texas Baptist in the opening game of the best-of-three NCAA Division III championship series.
The second contest of the series got uncharacteristically away from the Blazers, ending up as an 8-2 loss, and the Tigers also won the winner-take-all third game, 9-5, to wrap up their program's second national title.
Griffin's disappointment was softened about three weeks later when Konnor was drafted. He said his son's transition to pro ball has been a good one so far.
"The first pitch he faced in professional baseball was 98 miles per hour, so that was different from high school," Griffin said. "but he's been training for that, and the adjustment has been good."
He said he and his wife sent Konnor on some baseball trips by himself so he could start getting acclimated to being on his own and away from their family of five, which includes two other sons.
"Having Zoom and Facetime helps a lot," Griffin said. "He'll be in the cages hitting and he'll turn his camera on and call me and we'll talk hitting, right there in the middle of his Pirate workout. I think that's cool that we still have the ability to do that. My wife would rather hug him and have him in the same room, and I would, too. But I'm glad he still includes me in his training and development."
Griffin's softball team is going to look a lot different this coming season, with the graduation of two program-shaping players — ace pitcher Kennedy Carruth (also one of their best hitters) and third baseman Allie Gordon. Carruth stayed with the team as their new pitching coach, while Gordon is now coaching a high school team.
"They're not players you can replace," he said.
Griffin said the school has allowed him flexibility to balance both team and his son's pro career as he is able. For example, the team plays in Florida the same time as spring training, so he plans on seeing Konnor play as much as possible, and he may even rely on longtime assistant Courtney Fairley and Carruth to lead the team in his absence for a game or two.
"Fortunately, I control our schedule," he said. "I've built in off days so I can make the 45-minute drive to watch him play and get back for our games. That was important, to not miss out on that part of his life, especially early in his career."
"I've got a great administration at Belhaven, who has bent over backwards to make me feel comfortable staying in coaching and still be able to watch him play. I might even miss a non-conference series to go watch him. They are OK with that."
