Pearl River Community College coach Michael Avalon has a saying – it’s tough to get to the top, but it’s even harder to stay there.
It’s a saying Avalon learned from his dad, who was a longtime basketball coach. And it’s saying his assistant coaches, players and fans have heard countless times.
“I guess it’s a way of keeping yourself humble,” Avalon said. “I think you have to have the goal of being on top. That’s something you have to talk about and work towards. It’s easy to say those things, but the tough part of coaching is to get guys to believe in that. That’s what we had to change here, is getting our players to think we really can compete at the highest level. We really can be the team to beat.”
Avalon’s first experience with Pearl River CC was back in 2002, as he was a member of the Holmes CC team that set to compete in a regional hosted by the Wildcats.
And immediately, Avalon’s first impression was that PRCC had the potential to live up to his saying but had the capability to become a national powerhouse.
“I just always go back to the feeling that I had when I came to that regional,” Avalon said. “The atmosphere was just different. That was my initial impression that there was something just different about it. Coaching against them over the years after that, I’ve just always had high regard for this place. I thought that if I was ever fortunate enough to be the head coach of Pearl River, I thought we could be successful there. It seemed like all the pieces were there. We just had to put them together.”
After playing against and coaching against several Wildcats teams, Avalon always maintained his respect for the program, and his interest in it continued to develop, so when the job opened in 2016, it was a no-brainer to apply.
Jeff Long, who was PRCC’s athletic director at the time and is now the vice president for student services, was well aware of Avalon’s experience in building a program.
“That was my first few weeks as athletic director,” Long said. “My first duty was to lead a committee to hire a baseball coach. We had around 40 applicants. We had some success in spurts before.
“I was familiar with coach Avalon, and we had crossed paths through the years. We were looking for a program builder and someone that was going to be here for the long haul, and someone that would jump-start our program. We felt we had some things to be in place to be successful. We just needed the right trigger, man. He had a history of being a program builder and fundraiser. His family was used to the grind of community college athletics and baseball, so it was a good fit all the way around.”
In 2017 the program, like most junior college teams in the country, was all chasing the success that powerhouses Jones College and LSU-Eunice had regularly experienced. But in Avalon’s first season as head coach, in which PRCC finished 28-19, the Wildcats opened the Region 23 tournament with an unexpected 5-4 win over Jones, who at the time was 44-2. It was a game that the sixth-year coach felt was the first true taste of success his program had tasted.
“I thought that was kind of the start of this,” Avalon said. “That was big for that team to go over there and get a big win and get things moving in our direction. I always knew Pearl River was capable of (a national title).”
From there, the turnaround was almost immediate. PRCC posted a 38-11 record in 2018 and then, in 2019, made its first appearance in the Junior College World Series.
“One of the biggest parts to this is actually believing you can win a national championship,” Avalon said. “I know that sounds simple, but that’s a big part of that. As coaches, we have to instill that into the players that we can win a national championship. I thought that was one thing we did on Day 1.”
It was easy to notice Avalon’s ability to inspire his players for pitching coach Brandon Pennington, a Sumrall baseball alum who joined PRCC’s staff after the first world series appearance.
“He is extremely honest,” Pennington said. “He is not afraid to tell a player what he doesn’t want to hear but needs to hear. He is straightforward. There are no walls when you walk into his office. He is brutally honest and will tell you exactly how he feels. I think players respect that and respond to that. He’s a great motivator. He motivates players like I’ve never seen before.”
As a testament to his ability to lead his players, this year’s team decided to partake in the newer baseball tradition of dyeing their hair blonde for the postseason. However, unlike most teams that choose to do the strange ritual, Avalon and the rest of his coaching staff also opted to join the tradition, which is something coaches have never been known to do.
“I don’t think dying the hair is the key to winning a national championship, or every team in the country would be doing it,” Avalon said. “You’d be playing bleach blondes every day. We had every player and coach on their own dye their hair in some shape, form, or fashion. That was my belief in the guys.
“It’s not my best look. The reason I did it was because I saw a group of guys come together. That’s something that I preach, and it’s something that I say I want to be.”
Whether it was the blonde or the team’s sheer talent, what transpired was a dominant postseason run. The Wildcats outscored opponent in the Region 23 tournament 48-20, which included an 11-4 win over defending national champs LSU-Eunice. Then in the NJCAA DII College World Series, held in Enid, Oklahoma, the Wildcats made quick work of their bracket to advance to the championship as PRCC outscored teams 40-21.
“(Dyeing our hair) was one of those things that the players had put so much work in that I wasn’t going to not be bought into what they were doing,” Pennington said. “I’ve never seen coaches do it.
“Some people kind of laughed at us when we got to Enid. Bought our guys were bought into what we wanted to do. I don’t think it happens anywhere else.”
The Wildcats had to bounce back in the best-of-three championship series. PRCC dropped Game 1 to No. 2 Madison College 11-4, but the Wildcats answered with a blowout 19-1 win in Game 2. Then PRCC had overcome an early 2-0 deficit before defeating Madison 7-2 and finally enduring the long-awaited national championship dog pile.
“Whether it’s right or wrong, when we were hung after the dog pile, multiple returning guys said that they can’t wait to do this again next year,” Avalon said. “A lot of that is in the moment. That’s the right mindset you want for your players. I think success does one of two things to you. It either makes you complacent, or it makes you hungry for more. We want to coach guys that are hungry for more.”
