Assistant Coach and former Bulldog player Zac Haarala named Vancleave Head Baseball Coach
There’s a new skipper in town for the 2024 5A Baseball State Champions. The Vancleave Bulldogs are flipping over to a new chapter now, named the Haarala era. The school administration didn’t have to look long and far when it came to announcing Zac Haarala as the new head coach for the Vancleave baseball program.
Haarala has served the Gulf Coast as a Baseball Coach for many years, most recently serving as the Bulldog’s assistant coach for the last three seasons which includes the 2024 State Championship. The year 2021 wasn’t the first time he put on “For the V”; however, as Haarala is a Vancleave high school alum, and former standout baseball player himself. He says it’s a dream to suit up for his alma mater as their new head coach.
“Having the ability to play here and then come back and be a coach and now to be the head coach, it’s super exciting. I’ve always said if I wanted to be a head coach I wanted to be the head coach here, and now that I get the opportunity to do it, I’m super excited and honestly just ready to get going,” said new Head Coach Zac Haarala. “The going to be senior class this year were freshman when I got here, so being able to coach them for four years and see them grow and then now bring in this new freshman class, I feel like I have a really good relationship with all of the kids and I love them to death and I’ll do anything for them. They know what the expectation is here, and honestly it’s just going to be business as usual really. We know now next year whenever we start playing, everybody’s going to want to beat the State Champs, and we are not going to take winning for granted, winning baseball games is extremely difficult, and if it was easy everyone would do it. Like I said, we’re not going to take anything for granted, we’re going to work for everything that we get, and go out and just be competitive.”
The Haarala era began last week as the 2024-2025 Vancleave baseball roster was officially announced on Friday.
