You know how sometimes you witness something that just doesn’t feel right? Even if you’re invited, you feel as though you’re privy to something that you shouldn’t be seeing?
I experienced one of those incidents Sunday afternoon at Faircloth Field in Douglas. Around 6 p.m., what should have been one of the biggest events in the history of the Coffee Lady Trojans softball team took place. Jimmy John Liautaud, billionaire founder of Jimmy John’s restaurant chain, and his wife Leslie, visited Douglas to see firsthand a project their family foundation funded.
The Liautauds, through their foundation, donated $50,000 to the Lady Trojans softball program to build a new indoor hitting facility complete with a state of the art programmable Allstar Pitching Simulator. Though Liautaud made the donation, he didn’t want his name attached to the project. Instead, he wanted the facility named after his good friend and Coffee High alumnus Eddie Anderson.
Most sports fans in Douglas are familiar with Eddie. He was a gifted pitcher at Coffee High. After he graduated in 1985, he attended Georgia Perimeter College to play baseball. In 1986, before he ever played a regular season game at Georgia Perimeter, the Milwaukee Brewers selected Eddie in the first round (fifth selection overall) in the final winter draft (1986 was the last year Major League Baseball had a winter draft). Eddie spent a couple of years in the minors before injuries sent him back home to Douglas.
Always a supporter of athletics in Coffee County, Eddie contributed to and sponsored teams from the recreation level up to Coffee High School. A few years ago, he and his wife, Hillary, left Douglas and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. It was there that he met Liautaud.
At the time that he and the Liautauds were developing a strong, if not somewhat unlikely, friendship, another friend, then-Lady Trojans’ head coach Stan Hughes, was raising money to improve the facilities for the softball program. Eddie haphazardly mentioned to Liautaud that he ought to make a donation to the CHS softball program.
And that led to a $50,000 gift to fund the new hitting facility. There was, however, one string attached: Liautaud wanted the building to bear Eddie’s name.
“I moved to Nashville and I met this guy here and I just liked him. He’s just my kind of dude. We got to talking one day and we have a family foundation. We took some of the money from when we sold Jimmy John’s and we put it into a foundation. Every year, Leslie and I have the privilege of giving away a lot of money. Eddie said, ‘We could really use a practice facility. My buddy runs that softball team down there and we could really use that.’ And we figured it out,” said Liautaud on Sunday afternoon.
That’s how Eddie Anderson’s Hittin’ House was born.
Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there.
Sunday could have been a world-class party. Instead, it was subdued and almost . . . melancholy.
While the wheels were turning to get the Hittin’ House finalized (and keep it a secret from Eddie all the while), something else was going on. The softball program financials were under scrutiny. A complaint had been levied that money had been stolen from the program.
At least two different agencies looked at the softball team’s financials. There was never evidence of wrongdoing found. And yet school system personnel opted not to bring Coach Hughes back as softball coach for the 2023 season. Administrators maintain that the decision was justified, that though there was no evidence of stolen money, all funds couldn’t be accounted for. Coach Hughes’s friends and supporters protested, addressed the board, and signed petitions. Throughout the process, Coach Hughes has remained steadfast that nothing was amiss.
It didn’t matter. Coach Hughes was out.
By the time the school system relieved Coach Hughes of his coaching duties, the hittin’ house was well on its way to completion. But Liautaud wasn’t happy. Eddie wasn’t happy. Players and parents weren’t happy.
Despite their disdain, there was no stopping the project. Crews completed the building and installed the pitching simulator. The new set-up is top notch. The Lady Trojans can hit indoors and pitch in a covered bullpen. It is truly an amazing addition to the program.
Sunday afternoon, the Liautauds flew into Douglas in their private plane and visited the hittin’ house. Eddie and his family were also there. The new coaching staff, players, parents, and friends of the program attended. One representative from the school system, Athletic Director Steve Wight, showed up.
And Coach Hughes was there.
It was a bittersweet moment for him. He has since left the Coffee County School System. He enjoyed being back with his players and seeing what he had helped build. But you could also see the hurt and the ire that are still there.
This isn’t how it should have ended. Stan Hughes should still be the coach of the Lady Trojans softball team. In his absence, however, he did do one very important thing: He left the program in better shape — much, much better shape — that it was when he arrived.
The Lady Trojans will benefit from Coach Hughes’s work for years to come. Regrettably, he will not. Equally regrettably, any potential pipeline to the Liautaud foundation has been permanently severed. The new facility and simulator will need to be maintained, serviced, and updated. The softball program will have more needs in the future as will other programs. Those are going to cost a lot of money — money that the school system will now have to provide.
This project has been incredible. But it could have been so much more. It’s a shame there is such tragedy in what should be such a positive story.
Good luck, Lady Trojans. Thank you, Jimmy and Leslie Liautaud. And Coach Hughes, hold your head up high knowing that even in absentia, you have made a difference for many years to come.