Scott Foxhall Joins Auburn Baseball as Director of Player Development

CONTRIBUTED BY AU ATHLETICS

AUBURN — Auburn baseball head coach Butch

Thompson announced on Friday the addition of Scott Foxhall as the program’s director of player development. Foxhall, who has 29 years of collegiate coaching experience and previously served as Auburn’s pitching coach and recruiting coordinator from 200914, most recently spent the last five seasons as the pitching coach at Mississippi State (2019-23). His coaching career was kickstarted at the College of Charleston (19952008), his alma mater, and also included a four-year stint at N.C. State (2015-18).

“Scott Foxhall brings an abundance of experience to our player development position,” Thompson said. “His recruiting connections span across the country and his familiarity with Auburn will allow him to hit the ground running. A large number of former Auburn players and baseball supporters who love our program are going to be excited to see Scott and his amazing family back on The Plains.”

In his role with the Tigers, Foxhall will be responsible for assisting the coaching staff in the overall development of the student-athletes, from assisting with practice plans and scouting reports to reviewing analytical data and overseeing the academic progress of the program. He will also play a large role in on-campus recruiting.

“I believe in Coach Thompson and love the winning culture that he has restored for Auburn baseball,” Foxhall said. “I’m ready to get to work helping one of the most respected coaching staffs in the country to continue to develop high-level men who are also high-level baseball players.”

Foxhall’s tenure at Mississippi State was highlighted by helping lead the Bulldogs to the University’s first national championship and being named the

American Baseball Coaches Association

Assistant Coach of the Year in 2021. He has helped lead his teams to 10 NCAA Tournament appearances and a pair of College World Series appearances.

In 29 seasons in the dugout, Foxhall has mentored 24 All-Americans, 16 Freshman All-Americans and six Pitchers of the Year. Most recently, he coached back-to-back conference Pitchers of the Year in 2018-19, including the 2019 ABCA Pitcher of the Year, and back-to-back National Freshman of the Year award winners in 2019-20.

Foxhall has seen 61 of his pitchers selected in the MLB Draft, including 17 in the top 10 rounds. Sixteen of the 17 former pitchers taken in the top 10 rounds were undrafted out of high school. Eleven of his former pitchers have gone on to make their MLB debuts.

Foxhall has spearheaded the recruiting efforts for multiple programs, including his previous stint at Auburn. Each of his last three classes at Auburn ranked among the top 25, culminating with the No. 9 class in 2014. He also recruited future No. 1 overall pick Casey Mize during his time on The Plains. keep their doors open and keep their football program going.”

Along with the aforementioned accomplishments of players he mentored on the diamond, Foxhall has also helped stress success in the classroom, boasting four Academic All-Americans (nine total honors), one Academic All-American of the Year and three conference Student-Athlete of the Year award winners.

Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Foxhall was a member of the Auburn Baseball Team under head coach Hal Baird from 1990-91 before spending his final three seasons at the College of Charleston (199294), where he earned his bachelor's degree in education.

A native of Greer, South Carolina, Foxhall and his wife, Laura, have twin children, Kade and Kennedy.

The culmination of the inaugural AISA 8-man football classification took place at Montgomery’s Cramton Bowl on Nov. 17, along with championship games in the AISA’s three 11-man football classifications. At this time, Beck said the Cramton Bowl is “home” for the championship series, despite rumors of a time-share with Troy University floating around the news.

“It went really well,” Beck said of the four championship games played at Cramton Bowl. “When you get to the state championship game, you never know what may happen. And that [8-man championship] was an outstanding football game. And we had a great crowd, so we do have people in our association supporting the 8-man football. Again, I wish we would have just started that a little earlier because it does give our schools an opportunity to continue to play football, which we all know is the money maker for your schools.”

In addition to explaining the state of athletics within the AISA, Beck issued what could be described as a call to action. Beck noted that there is an official shortage which is causing complications with scheduling football games. To remedy that, Beck said the AISA has asked member schools to, if possible, willingly schedule games on Thursday nights to better allow for an adequate number of officials to serve all weekly games.

“There is still an official shortage, not just in our area but across the nation,” Beck said. “The part that a lot of our folks don’t understand is that these guys and gals got to start somewhere, and we have to give them a chance. I stay on our coaches all the time, they want to get on our officials for a missed call, this, that and the other … you got to learn somewhere. And we want them to learn at a lower level and move them up. A lot of our officials are older gentlemen, and we don’t have other officials lined up that are wanting to take their place. The official shortage continues to be tough on high school athletics.” schools, media representatives, iHeartRadio, the Orthopaedic Clinic and the Bottling Plant Event Center, where Media Days was held last week. He began by discussing the upcoming season and a few rule changes in football.

Beck said if anyone is interested in becoming an official that there a link on the AISA’s website that will direct them on how to get in touch.

Lastly, with practices beginning as of Monday, Beck also mentioned that the AISA is in the process of adding three new member schools to its ranks, including Trinity Christian School in Opelika, and that the AISA has no plans as of now to move toward adding a shot clock for its high school basketball games.

The first rule change of note: If the offensive player holds behind the line of scrimmage, the penalty will be accessed from the line of scrimmage instead of the spot of the foul. Teams may chose to decline the penalty because of this change. Other rule changes included that unnecessary or excessive contact to a defenseless player now includes a receiver. This means the receiver who is forcefully contacted by an opponent who is not (1) incidentally making contact, (2) initiating the hit with open hands or (3) attempting to tackle by wrapping arm(s) around the receiver, will be flagged. If a player is flagged for hitting a defenseless player, it is a 15-yard penalty.

FOX SPORTS THE GAME

HIGH SCHOOL MEDIA DAYS

PRESENTED BY ORTHOPAEDIC CLINIC

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, iHeartRadio's FOX Sports the Game (910-1310) and presenting sponsor, the Orthopaedic Clinic, hosted the sixth annual High School Media at the Bottling Plant Event Center. A record 22 high school football teams were represented by the teams’ head coaches and several players. Briggs and AISA Athletic Director Roddie Beck spoke about their athletic associations and the upcoming athletic year. In the coming weeks, I will go over tidbits from each school.

AISA NEWS I have learned that four AISA schools may apply for membership to the AHSAA. No official word from the AHSAA or the schools but a person with knowledge of this information, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said some of the schools have submitted paperwork requesting to join or are preparing the paperwork to submit. The four AISA schools want to be a part of the AHSAA in 2024-25, which allows the schools to play in the new classifications issued after fall sports. Stay tuned for more information.

DBB WORLD SERIES

ATTENDANCE

The Dixie Junior Boys World Series took in over $11,000 at the gate over the five days. This does not include teams, coaches and immediate family members, guests, DBB officials, umpires or workers. West Ridge park was visited by more than 1,000 people from out of state and several hundred from Alabama.

D. Mark Mitchell is the sports director at iHeartMedia, host of “On the Mark” Fox Sports the Game 9101319, co-chair of the Auburn-Opelika Sports Council, chairman of the Super 7 and Dixie Boys Baseball state director.