Pruitt resigns position as Enterprise baseball coach

At a team meeting on Tuesday, May 29, Enterprise baseball coach J.D. Pruitt announced that he would be resigning from his position effective June 22 to pursue other opportunities.

Pruitt was hired as Enterprise’s baseball coach in May 2015 and led the Wildcats to a 79-41 record, including a school-record 30 wins in 2017 and a school-record Class 7A No. 5-ranking in 2018, during his three years at the helm.

“We had a player meeting this morning to inform our guys that I will be resigning as head baseball coach here at Enterprise effective June 22,” Pruitt said. “Stuff like this is never easy and it was a very emotional meeting that we had. As a coach, I’m a teacher and mentor first and foremost, and I built some great relationships with my players here.”

Pruitt was originally hired at Enterprise in 2011 as the strength and conditioning coach and defensive backs coach for the football team before taking over as the head baseball coach in 2015. Before coming to Enterprise, Pruitt served as graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach and assistant on the baseball team at Troy University. He was also a baseball star at Montevallo before spending some time playing professional baseball. He was inducted into the Montevallo Sports Hall of Fame earlier this year.

“I have to thank (Enterprise Athletic Director) Trent Trawick and (former EHS Principal) Matt Rodgers for believing enough in me to lead the baseball program here at Enterprise,” Pruitt said. “I think we were able to do some really, really great things here in my time at EHS.”

Pruitt said that the relationships he built with his players made the decision extremely difficult on him.

“Anytime you do something like this you just want to make sure that those guys are going to be okay,” Pruitt said of his players. “That was my first thought when myself and my wife sat down and made the decision. I love these guys and I know they are going to be okay.

“You work so hard to make these players believe in you and trust you and build these relationships, so it’s never easy to leave.”

Pruitt pointed to his first senior class at EHS as the catalyst for the program’s success over the previous three seasons.

“I go back to my very first year and that senior class that really took ahold of everything that we wanted to try and instill in this program and they took it and ran with it and set the foundation for this baseball program,” Pruitt said. “Each senior class (since then) has done a great job of continuing to uphold those standards and work towards that vision we set for the program.

“I’m extremely thankful for my time here at Enterprise and the support that everyone has shown during my tenure here. It was a tough and stressful decision but I’m so grateful for my time here.”

Trawick said that Pruitt took the EHS baseball program to another level in his three seasons.

“From the athletic department, we thank Coach Pruitt for his time, dedication and commitment here at Enterprise High and how he represented himself not only here at the school but in the community,” Trawick said. “We wish him the best of luck at his next endeavor.

“Coach Pruitt has meant a lot to our baseball program. He has taken our program to another level and that’s a level that we obviously want to continue moving towards, using the foundation that he built here.”

Trawick said that it would be important to find a replacement that will continue to build on Pruitt’s foundation at EHS.

“As we met with the players this morning, I encouraged them to keep working and told them that we would find the best person possible to continue moving the program in the direction that Coach Pruitt was taking the EHS baseball program,” Trawick emphasized. “I told them that I would love to stand before them and say that we would have a coach as soon as possible but policies have to and will be followed.”

Trawick said that while there is no timetable for hiring a new coach, the earliest it could be done is at the next school board meeting at the end of June.

Pruitt was also named as Enterprise’s new cornerbacks coach with the football program, a position he held under previous coach Kevin Collins, during the spring and Enterprise football coach David Faulkner will be in search for his replacement during the summer, as well.