By SANDRA THAMES / Community Columnist

One of Alabaster’s former young athletes is all grown up and now manages part of our youth programs in which he once participated.

Blaine Douglass came to Alabaster in 1977 as the youngest of three brothers. Raised in Scottsdale, Douglass lists some of his best childhood memories as exploring with about five or six other Scottsdale boys and ball players.

“We were a close group for many years. Kids rambled outside back then. Football, baseball and basketball took up a lot of our time” Douglass said.

After graduating from Thompson High School in 1994, Douglas attended Jacksonville State where he played college baseball. He graduated and played one year of pro ball in Tennessee. Being a trainer at Sports First (where he met wife Lori), selling for a wine distributor and being a pharmaceutical salesman for seven-and-a-half years brought Douglass full circle.

As athletic director since August 2012, Douglass handles programs for cheerleading, football, baseball and girls softball, which all amount to quite a challenge. Right now, during baseball and softball, there are 55 teams with more than 550 players.

The conditions under which Douglas played in the late 1980’s, and the present day are so different.

“We used to clean up our own park at night, run down the hill for another bag of lime, and coaches would shovel dirt and sand over wet areas on the field,” he said. “Now, we have the city crews to maintain our multiple fields at Warrior, Buck Creek and of course the complex at Veterans Park.”

Douglass said 2002 was the most challenging year of his life. His brothers, Jason and John, were involved in a boating accident that resulted in Jason’s death. The next few months, Douglass stayed with his mom, Marie. Later that same year, Blaine and Lori were married and are now parents of daughters Kendall, age 9, and Sloane, age 3.

Douglass is happy in his job, crazy about his family (they love camping and ball) and attends Calera Methodist Church.

 

Community columnist Sandra Thames can be reached  by e–mail at bobthames1942@yahoo.com.