‘One of the best baseball coaches in the country’ replaces legend Bobby Howard at Pacelli

St. Anne-Pacelli Catholic School has hired someone to replace legendary baseball coach Bobby Howard, and he’s got quite the resume.

Adam Thomas, a Hall of Famer and the former head coach at Chattahoochee Valley Community College, is the new head coach at Pacelli, the private school announced Tuesday.

Howard resigned last month to become the head coach at Mosley High School in Lynn Haven, Florida.

“It is a blessing to get a Hall of Fame college coach to lead our Vikings Baseball program,” Corry Black, the Pacelli athletics director, said in a new release. “Coach Thomas is one of the best baseball coaches in the country. I am excited to welcome him and (assistant) Coach (Carson) Bowers to our Viking family.”

Thomas was inducted into the Alabama Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2019. He began his head baseball coaching career at CVCC in 2000 at the age of 23, replacing B.R. Johnson, who notched 624 victories.

After graduating from Smiths Station High School in 1993, Thomas was a two-year starting catcher for CVCC. He was an Alabama Junior College Conference all-star in 1996 when the Pirates won the conference title.

Thomas was head coach of the Pirates for 19 years before resigning in 2018 due to health concerns that have since been remedied. He has remained as CVCC’s athletics director.

During his tenure as head coach, Thomas led the Pirates to a record of 728-358 while capturing four regional championships and two third-place finishes in the National Junior College Athletic Association Baseball World Series.

Thomas has helped more than 200 of his former CVCC players sign scholarships at four-year colleges, and 26 were either drafted or signed as free agents by Major League Baseball teams. In 2012, Thomas was inducted into the CVCC Hall of Fame. He also is a two-time Alabama Community College System Chancellor’s Award winner in the administrator’s category.

Thomas earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from the University of Montevallo and a master’s degree in administration from Troy University.

“I’m excited to be a part of the Pacelli family,” he said in the news release. “I’m following in the footsteps of a legend in Coach (Bobby) Howard. He’s done a phenomenal job of building the program, and I look forward to continuing to improve upon what he’s built. . . . I’m glad to be a head coach again, and I’m humbled to be able to do that in a Pacelli baseball uniform.”