Union County High School baseball coach Josh Orrick took a few short steps to accept some state championship hardware on May 26 along the first-base line at the field on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University after guiding his Patriots to the TSSAA Class AA title.
It’s approaching 20 years since he was strolling across campus as a freshman at Virginia Intermont College in Bristol.
“I loved that walk through the quad at VI. It was so vibrant and alive every day; even in the winter months,” Orrick said. “It was like attending a high school that you lived at. Everyone knew everyone on that campus and we looked out for each other.”
A left-handed pitcher at Virginia Intermont from 2004-2007, his time with the Cobras produced pleasant memories and the college on Moore Street was an important stop on a journey that has since seen him achieve the ultimate goal of every high school coach.
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He made many lifelong friends during his time in Bristol and many former classmates and teammates from those days sent him congratulatory messages after Union County won it all.
“He was truly a coach’s dream to coach,” said Chris Holt, the baseball boss at VI when Orrick was there. “He was a fierce competitor with a heart of gold for others. I am so proud of Josh’s accomplishments yet not surprised. I thoroughly enjoyed following his team on their run to the championship.”
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A standout at Rutledge High School in rural Grainger County, Tennessee, Orrick played a starring role in a 2003 regional tournament win over Sullivan Central.
He was already on Holt’s radar by that time and VI recruiting coordinator David Bowman happened to be among those in attendance that day and following the performance offered Orrick a chance to play for the Cobras.
“I went on a visit the next week,” Orrick said. “Once I got to Bristol I knew I wanted to stay there. It felt just like home.”
With a plus fastball and devastating curveball, Orrick became a key contributor.
“He was always looking to win a battle on the mound,” said Matt Grimm, a former Virginia High slugger and teammate of Orrick’s with the Cobras. “Never scared to go after anyone. It does not surprise me in the least that he is a winning coach.”
Orrick and Josh Self, his high school teammate and an outfielder, were among a 13-man recruiting class. They were among the four remaining for Senior Day four years later.
“Josh was a team-first kind of guy,” said Chase Watkins, a Sullivan East High School graduate and one of those four seniors. “Everyone at VI loved him.”
Orrick loved representing the Cobras on the mound.
“I always enjoyed getting the start against King,” Orrick said. “Crosstown rivalry and I had some friends over there. It never went very well for us but I enjoyed those games more than any.”
Of course there was some fun to be had and valuable lessons to be learned for a college kid.
“My first night on campus my sophomore year we had an off-campus event that lasted all night,” Orrick said. “We were happy to be back in Bristol, let’s say that. The next morning class sign-ups were happening in Smith-Canter Gymnasium. Coach Holt knew I had a class I needed to get signed up for, so he told me to get there early so I could get signed up for that class before it filled up.
“I told him I’d be there and would be first in line. Next morning, I was the last person in the long line that stretched all the way back to Hodge’s Hall. Coach Holt came walking across the quad with his coffee in hand. I knew it was going to be bad. He taught me that next morning at 6 a.m. on the Virginia High track that when you tell someone you will do something you better follow through.”
Orrick could also sometimes draw the ire of his teammates.
“Back in 2005 he had the loudest and most annoying ring tone on his phone,” Justin Roop recalled. “Never on vibrate, even on charter buses and road trips. I don’t even remember the name of the song, but I cringe every time I hear the actual song when it comes on the radio.”
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Roop might have not enjoyed Orrick’s blaring ring tone, but the Wise County, Virginia, native certainly appreciated his friendship with the pitcher.
“When I was a freshman, Josh was a sophomore and with me coming into an entirely new team, only knowing a few people and not realizing Pound High School had a totally different enrollment than most of the schools that other guys on the team went to, Josh was one of the first guys to take me under their wing and help me adjust to the speed of the college game and college life in general,” Roop said. “He’s always the guy that will be there for you, no matter what with a huge smile on his face.”
He hasn’t changed in that regard.
Ian Setzer was a key member of Union County’s title squad, but was a newcomer after transferring from Grace Christian Academy.
“I was having some problems adjusting and feeling like I belonged during the first two or three weeks of school,” Setzer said. “And I remember Coach O talking to me after a practice and just basically making me feel wanted. He told me, ‘Life is extremely hard and you’re going to have things that you are going to overcome.’ He said, ‘Just remember, once spring comes around and we are out on the field everyone is going to know you belong.’ ”
That pretty much sums it up in regards to Orrick’s people skills.
“I’m a player’s coach for sure,” Orrick said. “You have to have standards but within those standards I have to know what each individual player needs. Kids are all different and unique in their own way. It’s my job to adapt and adjust to their needs.”
Coaching came natural to him and his first gig was as a graduate assistant coach at VI during the 2008 season.
“Josh was a year ahead of me, so my senior year Josh was actually a student assistant,” said former VI teammate Shawn Wright. “And what he did with the pitching staff we had was amazing. He was so encouraging, but such a competitor.”
Orrick later moved on to coaching baseball at Horace Maynard Middle School and then moved on to teaching driver’s education at L&N STEM Academy in Knoxville.
While there he coached … tennis.
“The kids had to teach me how to keep score that first season,” Orrick said with a laugh. “I realized I was doing those kids a disservice by not knowing the game. Year two I brought on Geoff Duggan, who was a high school tennis coach at Bearden for Chris Woodruff, current University of Tennessee tennis coach.
“I told Duggan I would handle the administrative side if he would coach the kids. Together we made it to the state tournament and the boys team finished runner-up at the Spring Fling in his second year coaching those kids. The administration moved me to athletic director after that.”
In the fall of 2018, he became the head baseball coach at Union County which is located in Maynardville, Tennessee, about a 35-minute drive from Knoxville and a place with somewhere around 2,500 residents.
The community support reached a fever pace as the Patriots qualified for the state tournament for the first time in program history and compiled a 32-10 record. Heck, Union County had never won a district championship before this year.
“This team could win in any fashion that the game dictated that specific night,” Orrick said. “If you needed the longball one night to win they would do that. If you needed to play small ball to manufacture runs against a power arm we could do that also. We had power, speed and a very deep pitching staff.”
When did he know his squad might have state title potential?
“We faced four future Power-5 arms during the last two weeks of the regular season,” Orrick said. “We won three of the four games. That’s when our coaching staff started thinking, ‘Hey this group has a shot to do something.’ ”
Union County earned an 8-3, eight-inning win over Milan in the finals.
It took a little while for the magnitude of the moment to sink in for the head coach.
Was this really happening?
“It’s an indescribable feeling that runs over you,” Orrick said. “You see kids and coaches work so hard for something that they finally reach. I was waiting for the state to call my athletic director the next day or so and tell us I messed up on pitch counts or something and we have to give it back.”
Virginia Intermont closed its doors in 2014 due to financial struggles and the campus now sits depressingly dilapidated.
However, for Josh Orrick the lessons he took from there still resonate on a daily basis in his role as coach of the TSSAA Class AA state champs.
“Intermont taught me how to build relationships and connect with people,” Orrick said. “It was such a small campus you had no choice but to connect with people from different backgrounds – equestrian riders, foreign soccer and tennis players, foreign track and field athletes. We all learned how to connect and build relationships from scratch.”