CHILDERSBURG, Ala. – Donahoo is the name, Will Donahoo. He is the new head baseball coach at Childersburg Tigers after two-year coach Taylor Craven departed to be closer to his home in Randolph County.
Will is a 2014 graduate of Childersburg High School, where he lettered three years on the varsity baseball team under long time successful coach Chad Slaten. Donahoo’s senior campaign as a pitcher saw him hurl a 10-1 record with a 0.9 ERA (earned run average).
His senior year also saw the Tigers lose to the eventual state champion Charles Henderson of Troy in the semifinals after compiling a 39-4 record.
Will then went on to play baseball at the collegiate level, throwing over 50 innings for the CACC Trojans, followed by 75 innings two straight years year at Miles College. At Miles, he was reunited with three of his high school teammates from Childersburg and helped capture the 2017 SIAC Championship.
However, the name Donahoo with Childersburg Baseball did not start with Will. In fact, you might say its been a “Who’s Hoo” there.
His grandfather, William Donahoo, played at Childersburg High School and furthered his playing career at the University of Alabama. In 1964, he won an SEC Championship.
His grandmother, Sandra Donahoo, now retired, was a long time city clerk for the city of Childersburg, and that’s not all.
Will’s father, Chad Donahoo, played at Childersburg as well. In the early 2000’s, Chad was the head baseball coach at Winterboro High School before he decided to come back home and be an assistant coach to Chad Slaten.
Back to Will, he has been coaching at Childersburg since 2019. Now going into his fifth year of coaching, he has been an assistant under Josh Podoris and Taylor Craven and has waited patiently for his turn. In his first year as the head Tiger, I asked him what he wanted from his tenure at his alma mater.
“I want the community, which has always been a baseball community, to come out and support our kids, but also be proud of the product that we put on the field,” Will said. “I also want to have great rivalries with schools like Sylacauga, B.B. Comer, Fayetteville, and Vincent.”
“My philosophy is win the pitch, win the out, and win the inning, and the rest will take care of itself.”
