CULLMAN, Ala. – After serving seven seasons as the head baseball coach at West Point High School, Drew Bryson is returning home to his alma mater to take the reins of the Cullman High School softball program. Bryson collected six county championships and led the Warriors to a pair of playoff berths in his tenure and leaving a place where he has made a lot of memories and relationships wasn’t an easy choice.
“It was an extremely tough decision. But at the end of the day this is where I feel like God led me and we’re excited about that journey,” Bryson said. “At the same time, it’s sad because we spent eight years as a family in West Point and made a lot of friendships as part of that community and that school. I also got to coach a lot of great baseball players so for me the wins and the county titles are something we’re proud of but it’s the relationships with those guys. Seeing them come into the program as middle schoolers and seeing them graduate and go on to college and get careers is what I’ll value the most. I still stay in touch with a lot of those guys so just because I’m somewhere different, it’s not going to change my relationships with those guys.”
Bryson knows that shifting from baseball to softball will bring some new challenges, but he’s spent a lot of time watching his daughters play and he’s excited to begin a new journey with a new sport.
“It’s definitely going to be a learning curve for me. I’ve been involved in softball for the last few years because of my daughters playing so I’ve gotten to where I love the game. I watch a lot of college softball on TV and it’s just so much faster than baseball. It’s fun to watch and fun to be a part of,” Bryson said. “Coming back home to Cullman to start from scratch and building a program and getting to know the girls and developing those relationships is something that won’t happen overnight. It’s going to take time just like when I first got to West Point. You have to build the trust and build those relationships with the kids. They have to know you’re there for them and that you care about them and at the end of the day we want to compete. We want to compete at a high level and play for championships, but I think it’s also critical that we make sure the focus is on building great student athletes. Young ladies that are great on the field but great off the field too.”
As a player, Bryson helped lead the Bearcats baseball program to back-to-back state championships in 2007 and 2008 and his coaches at Cullman had a big impact on his career as a player and later on as a coach. Another big factor in his decision to return to Cullman was the opportunity to coach his daughters on the diamond a few years from now.
“Cullman means a lot to me. I will forever be grateful to Bryan Bowen and Brent Patterson for the impact they had on my life. I’m doing what I’m doing now because of them. That’s why I chose to go into coaching so as mentors, the role they played in my life was huge,” Bryson said. “I’m also making the switch for my daughters. I’ve spent pretty much my whole adult life coaching baseball and I knew as my girls got older that at some point, I was going to have to step away from coaching to go be dad and watch them or shift over to softball. This allows me to coach and keep doing what I love and at the same time I get to be dad and get to see them play as they come up.”
CHS Athletics Director Mike Dean saw Bryson’s coaching acumen up close when he coached his own kids and believes he’ll be a great new leader for the Bearcats softball program.
“He has a strong background in coaching and he began his career here at Cullman High School where he spent three years under head baseball coach Brent Patterson. He then served as an assistant at Curry High School for one year before moving to West Point High School where he has been for eight years. Drew has coached at various levels in athletics from youth sports to travel teams to high school programs. He emphasizes discipline, sportsmanship and teamwork and believes that sports provide valuable lessons,” Dean said. “Through athletics, Drew instills leadership, perseverance and collaboration, qualities that we all strive to develop in our student athletes. The biggest endorsement for Drew is that he coached my youngest son in baseball for three or four years and I don’t know if remembers the conversation but after he coached my kid I went to him and said ‘Drew, you’re going to be a really good head coach one day’. I think it’s kind of a full circle moment to have him come back home and we’d like to welcome him to Cullman High School.”
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