Mauldins reflect on special baseball journey

Playing baseball for his dad is the “best and hardest” thing for Tyler Mauldin, a 2020 graduate at Hewitt-Trussville High School.

He never has to wonder how his dad and coach feels about his most recent moment on the field. If he swings at a bad pitch, he can see the scowl on dad’s face out of the corner of his eye in the third base coach’s box. That doesn’t feel great.

If he rips a double on the next pitch, he sees the look of approval as soon as he reaches second base. That’s a satisfying moment.

Jeff Mauldin considers coaching his son the “most challenging” and “most enjoyable” thing that he’s done during a coaching career that has spanned over two decades.

He’s been in the middle of his son’s finest moments on and off the field. Watching him get four hits in the state championship series as a sophomore was “really special.” And as good of a baseball player as Tyler has become, Jeff is more impressed with the person he sees developing.

“How he’s grown into a young man exceeds anything baseball,” he said. “Baseball has been great but watching him grow into someone kids are looking up to, that means more to me than anything.”

HEEDING ADVICE

Jeff has been a high school baseball coach for 21 years now, with stops at Clay-Chalkville, Pelham and Hewitt-Trussville. He’s won several hundred games and two state championships (2003 at Clay-Chalkville and 2016 at Hewitt-Trussville).

But just a few years ago, he was set to encounter an uncharted situation in his coaching career.

Tyler was an eighth-grader during the Huskies’ 2016 title run. After his middle school season concluded, he practiced with the varsity team the rest of the way. Throughout that spring and summer, he began to catch the eye of not only his dad, but the rest of the coaching staff.

“We said, ‘Hey, he’s got a chance to play as a freshman,’” Jeff recalled.

This led to the well-versed coach calling on his peers. Samford head coach Casey Dunn played for his legendary father Sammy Dunn at Vestavia Hills. Tommy Walker at Spanish Fort and Roger Wright at Buckhorn have also coached their sons in high school ball along the way.

“Tommy Walker gave me the best advice. He said, ‘Let someone else coach him. Have a guy that’s not afraid to tell you something on your staff,’” Jeff said.

That person proved to be Jeff Schrupp, who has been an assistant with Jeff Mauldin at each of Mauldin’s three head coaching stops. He was the man for the job.

“He’s an infielder, and I coach infielders. He’s a hitter and I coach hitters. I got him,” Jeff recalled Schrupp telling him.

PROVING HIMSELF

Jeff struggled with the decision to insert Tyler as the varsity team’s starting second baseman as a freshman. Although it was obvious to people within the program that Tyler was the best option, there would always be the perception by some that special treatment was involved.

“My freshman year and into the beginning of my sophomore year, that was the most difficult time because people didn’t believe I should be starting,” Tyler said.

Those doubts would soon evaporate. By the end of that sophomore year in 2018, Tyler was hitting third in the Huskies’ lineup behind Ed Johnson and Carson Skipper — two players who signed with Auburn — on a team that finished as the Class 7A runner-up.

“That’s where I’m the most proud of him, was how he handled different things,” Jeff said. “He didn’t allow me being his dad coaching him to affect him.”

Even with the COVID-19 pandemic bringing a premature end to his senior season, Tyler finished his career at Hewitt-Trussville near the top of the record books in many categories. He finished with the second-most games played (137), hits (131), runs batted in (92) and assists (241) in program history. Given a full season, he could have ascended to the top in some of those categories.

Tyler was also just the second player in school history to be named first-team all-state twice (2018-19).

BEING DAD

The only time Jeff has sat in the stands to watch Tyler play ball came in a month-long stretch during the fall of Tyler’s freshman year, when he began playing with the East Coast Sox organization.

At the time, Jeff was recovering from hip surgery. In the fall and summer seasons since, he has helped coach Tyler’s East Coast Sox team.

“Even in the middle school program, if I came, I was in the dugout [coaching]. That’s really the only time. That was harder watching than it was coaching,” Jeff said.

After this summer, Jeff will be relegated to the bleachers once again, as Tyler begins his college career at Northwest Florida State College. Tyler has been exposed most to his dad and Schrupp’s baseball tutelage, and will soon have new voices instructing him.

“I’m looking forward to getting comfortable being uncomfortable,” Tyler said. “You need to be uncomfortable to grow in life.”

Both father and son gave plenty of credit to Chrissy Mauldin, whose role as wife and mother was essential to the duo’s relationship over the years.

“She was a great sounding board for [Tyler],” Jeff said. “He couldn’t come to me sometimes but he could go to her and she would listen. ... Later on in his career, she would give him advice and he would take it. She was his go-to person to talk to, and she helped him a ton.”

In late April, Tyler posted on social media that he had “no regrets” with how his high school career played out. His dad said the same.

“We’re closer as father and son now than we would’ve been without this,” Jeff said. “I think God’s plan was perfect for us. We’re going to continue to grow through the next phase.

“Looking back, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”