It was on that same field in the fall of 1989 that Foxhall showed up as an unknown walk-on and pitched under the watchful eye of coach Hal Baird. He made the team, stayed two years and left for the College of Charleston when it became obvious he would not be a major factor. He became a coach and followed John Pawlowski from Charleston back to Auburn.
His first night on campus as a coach was one he will long remember.
“We were going to go right to the hotel,” Foxhall told AuburnUndercover.com on Tuesday, “but J.P. said ‘Why don’t you come to the field?’ It was about 11:30. We walked out the tunnel and stood out there at second base. You have Jordan-Hare in the background, everything around you, a full-moon. You just get chill bumps.”
Auburn was part of Foxhall’s life long before he put on a blue and orange uniform for the first time. His father, Rusty, a retired chemical engineer; his mother, Helen; a brother; and numerous aunts and uncles are Auburn graduates. Growing up in Greer, S.C., Foxhall learned to love Auburn football from his earliest days.
“I was Auburn football out of the womb,” Foxhall said. “Every Saturday, we’d pack up in South Carolina and come to Auburn. Home games, away games, we went to all of them. Back then, it was probably about a 5 ½-hour trip with all the road construction in Atlanta. We’d get up at 5 in the morning, drive to Auburn, tailgate and drive back. That was our lifestyle. I grew up a Tiger.”
Tuesday, it became official that Foxhall, 37, is a Tiger again. He will be the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator and Matt Heath the hitting coach on Pawlowski’s first staff. After spending nine seasons together at College of Charleston, Pawlowski, Foxhall and Heath soaked it all in that night on the field. And they’re still soaking it in.
“This is a pretty special place,” Pawlowski said. “I knew, since Scott had been here before, it was even more special to him with the history and his family and everything. Every day before I leave, I walk out on the field and say ‘Wow, how fortunate we are and how fortunate I am to be a small part of this program.’”
In his two seasons at Auburn, Foxhall mostly pitched batting practice. He left because he wanted to do more, but he says Baird made a lasting impact on his life, one he still feels today.
“When I showed up, he didn’t know who I was,” Foxhall said. “It was in the left field bullpen. I was a skinny right-hander. He kept me, and it certainly changed my life. It kept me in baseball. If he hadn’t kept me that day, I probably would have done something else. He’s always been somebody I looked up to. When you think of him, you think of class, you think of a gentleman.
“He’s certainly one of my heroes.”
Back in South Carolina, Rusty Foxhall is thrilled for his middle son and for his family. Chris, his oldest, is a successful businessman in Atlanta. Joey, his youngest, was a standout baseball player and scholar at College of Charleston and is a successful lawyer in Charlotte. All remain devoted Auburn supporters. And now Scott is at the place that means so much to them all.
In 2004, Pawlowski was a finalist for the Auburn job when Tom Slater was hired. Foxhall was excited about the possibility, but it turned out he had to wait a little longer. Finally, Foxhall, his wife, Laura, and their 1-year-old twins, Kade and Kenze, can call Auburn home.
“It’s funny how things work out,” Rusty Foxhall said. “It’s very special for him and for all of us. He’s worked very hard. It’s exciting.”
But now it’s time for the hard part, turning around a program that hasn’t been to the eight-team Southeastern Conference Tournament since 2003. Foxhall is convinced it can happen and will happen quickly.
“The guy in the room over there is the reason,” Foxhall said, pointing to Pawlowski’s office. “He is very detail oriented. It goes from the smallest thing about keeping the area around your locker clean, making sure you show up early for class and sit on the front row, making sure you take pride in getting the runner from first to second, all the things people consider small things. He’s adamant that they do them correctly and do them correctly all the time. That’s the way we’ll attack this thing. No stone is unturned. Everything is important. The little things are going to add up to the big things.”
Slater did not leave the new staff short-handed. Last season’s team was dominated by freshmen. Hunter Morris made the U.S. National Team. Brian Fletcher was one of the last players cut.
“It’s a tough league,” Foxhall said. “I know it is. I know you can do a very good job and still come up short sometimes. We are impressed with the players and talent that is here. We know it is going to be a challenge to get them to play together and win in this league, but we’ve had a very good run of winning.”
The Southern Conference isn’t the SEC, but Foxhall says doing things the right way will win in any league. Besides, he’s tasted SEC competition. In 2006, the Cougars went to Lexington and beat SEC champion Kentucky in its own regional.
“We are used to tough weekends,” Foxhall said. “It’s going to be the same thing as far as competitiveness, except the players are a lot better and the crowds a lot bigger. We feel like we know how to prepare a team going into a competitive weekend. We certainly respect the fact that this is the best baseball conference. We know it’s going to be a huge challenge. We feel like the things we’ve done in the past are going to continue to hold true. It’s just going to be done at a higher level.”
Foxhall, who will often be away on the recruiting trail, and Pawlowski, a former major leaguer, work together with the pitchers. It’s a setup they both say has been proved to be invaluable.
“I think this pitching staff has a lot of potential to win in this conference,” Foxhall said. “We feel like this coaching staff we have here has a specialty in pitching with Coach Pawlowski pitching in the major leagues. We worked very well together with the pitchers in Charleston and we will here.
“He’s very adamant that they are fundamentally sound. He’s very good at tweaking this and tweaking that. He’s the best I’ve ever seen at, if they get a little bit off track, making an adjustment and getting them right back on track.”
For now, Foxhall, a renowned recruiter, will concentrate on convincing high school players to come play for the school he’s loved since he was a little boy. When Pawlowski left the College of Charleston, Foxhall was a strong candidate to replace him. But he soon pulled out.
“I told him there would only be one place I would consider not taking a head job to be an assistant there,” Foxhall said.
“And that would be Auburn.”
Heath joins Pawlowski for third season
The hitting coach at College of Charleston for the past two seasons, Heath helped the Cougar hitters rank 10th nationally in batting average (.334), first in runs scored per game (10.6), home runs (130) and slugging percentage (.607), second in runs (627) and doubles per game (2.73) and seventh in walks (328) last season.
His 2007 squad was just as impressive, leading the NCAA in batting average (.350), slugging percentage (.570) and runs scored per game (9.5), establishing six school records along the way: runs per game (9.5), slugging percentage (.570), RBI (513), home runs (92), runs scored (552) and hits (760), with five of those records being topped last season.
Heath joined Pawlowski at College of Charleston after spending two seasons as an assistant coach at Tallahassee Community College where he worked with the catcher, infielders and hitters. The TCC team ranked in the top five in Florida both seasons in average (.322), home runs (92) and runs per game (7.7).
A native of Fernandina Beach, Fla., Heath played at Florida from 1999-2000 before transferring to LSU, where he played in 2001-02. At LSU, Heath was a two-time All-SEC Tournament selection, making the team as a catcher in 2001 and an outfielder a year later. In 2002, he led LSU in home runs (10) and runs scored (57). That season he was also selected to the all-tournament team in the Baton Rouge Regional.
Heath played in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization for two seasons before completing his degree at LSU and beginning his coaching career.
