PREP BASEBALL: John Hardin's Lindsey resigns after five seasons as Bulldogs' coach (06/15)

Coaching three sports for several years took a hit on Adam Lindsey and as a result, he’s decided to give up coaching the sport involving a bat.

After five seasons in charge of the John Hardin Bulldog baseball program, Lindsey tendered his resignation last week.

“I made a five-year run at it and I haven’t been able to quite turn the corner and I’m standing in someone’s way to make progress or start rebuilding from scratch, depending on how you look at it,” said Lindsey, hinting he’d like to focus on a fall sport. “Everyone who knows me knows I want to get back into football. I’m a football guy.”

Under Lindsey, the Bulldogs were 66-72 and failed to advance past the 17th District Baseball Tournament. But John Hardin’s previous two coaches – Bryan Lewis (2001-05) and Jason Frazier (2006) – never qualified for the 5th Region Baseball Tournament, either.

Despite the Bulldogs’ lack of postseason success, at least one district coach said Lindsey did an admirable job.

“I have a lot of respect for what Adam did at John. Adam is a guy who has coached around here for a long time,” said Elizabethtown coach Don Pitts, whose Panthers ended the Bulldogs’ season in the district tournament semifinals. “He did things the right way. They played extremely hard. You knew when you faced them he would always have them up. I was always concerned when we faced Adam’s teams because he’s such a great motivator.”

For five years, Lindsey hasn’t had much of a break. He’s coached football for three middle schools in that span – Bluegrass (2006-08), East Hardin (2009) and LaRue County (2010) – before coaching John Hardin wrestling in the winter and baseball in the spring.

Because of his coaching commitments, he’s missed many of freshman son Koy’s football, basketball and baseball games and sophomore daughter Meredith’s cheerleading, track and gymnastics events.

“Both my kids will be in high school this year. I forfeited some time this year from seeing my kids play freshmen baseball and run track for LaRue. I’ve put out about 20 years coaching someone else’s kids and to do that and miss out on my own kids, that’s above and beyond the call of duty,” Lindsey said. “It was time to scale back and hopefully coach one sport for a little while.”

Because he made the decision after school was out and some players have been on vacation, Lindsey said he hasn’t met with his former players. He plans to speak with them Thursday night during the Bulldogs’ year-end banquet in the school commons area.

“I haven’t told them, but they know,” he said. “The cat is out of the bag as far as the (Hardin County Schools) district posting the position. So it doesn’t bother me that people know. It’s public record and if people had dug into it, they would have known sooner than this.”

Lindsey, 47, said he’ll miss a lot of people, parents and coaches included.

“I had a great time doing this. I had a tremendous group of people who gave time and effort toward the program. I have to thank my coaches definitely,” he said.

Of course, Lindsey said he can’t forget the players who put up with him.

“And oh, I’ll miss the kids, absolutely I will. I had some really good assistant coaches and I had some tremendous booster parents,” he said, pausing before adding with a laugh, “and then I had a few I hope I never see again.”

Nathaniel Bryancan be reached at (270) 505-1758 or at nbryan@thenewsenterprise.com