Benedictine's Kevin Farmer steps down after stellar high school baseball coaching career

Benedictine's Kevin Farmer, one of the top high school baseball coaches in the nation, has stepped down as the Cadet coach, the school announced Thursday.

Farmer, who was a standout player at Benedictine, where he graduated in 1992, started his head coaching career at Calvary Day and led the Cavs to Class A State crowns in 2005 and 2007. He made the move to his alma mater and started as the Cadet head coach in 2013. He led BC to state championships in Class 2A in 2014 and 2018. He also had state runner-up finishes with Calvary in 2006 and at BC in 2021.

The 49-year-old Farmer will continue at Benedictine in his role as an assistant principal and will also stay with the baseball program in a different role. His younger brother Kyle, whom he coached at Calvary Day, is a BC assistant coach and a teacher at the school. The school has not named who will serve as Farmer's replacement.

This year Farmer reached a milestone with his 500th career victory. He finished with a career record of record of 517 wins, 157 losses, and two ties in 21 years as a head coach, including a 276-87-1 mark at BC.

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Along the way, Farmer coached a number of players who went on to play in college and professionally. In recent years, Carter Holton had a stellar career at BC under Farmer, before signing with Vanderbilt, where he is now a star sophomore pitcher with the Commodores.

Center fielder Justin Thomas, another BC star, was a teammate of Holton and is now a freshman playing at Georgia.

"Coach Farmer had a huge impact on my life," Thomas said in a phone interview after the announcement. "He helped me improve so much with my game, and was always there when I needed him for anything, on or off the field. As a coach, he was hard-nosed and pushed you to the limit. I liked that he never sugarcoated anything. He always is going to tell you exactly what is on his mind.

"He also taught me a lot about how to handle myself in school and how things go in the real world. He was great coach, and he's going to be a friend for the rest of my life."

BC junior Parker McCoy, who has committed to play at North Carolina, said Farmer's presence as the program's leader will be missed.

"He's been the guy that taught me everything about baseball since I've been at BC," McCoy said. "He was a hard-working coach who is really dedicated to the game, and he believed in tough love when it came to his players. Two things I'll always remember that he taught us are that being on time is late and that if you're not giving 110%, you shouldn't even be out there. Those are things that cross over and can be applied in everyday life."

Jack Holland, from the Cadet Class of 2003, coached as an assistant with Farmer for 12 years before taking over as the BC athletic director in 2021. He said Farmer is a top notch coach who has earned the respect of players, colleagues and opponents throughout his career.

"I was able to coach with him and see how he handled things first hand and then worked with him from my current position," Holland said. "Coach Farmer set the standard here at Benedictine. He demanded a lot of his players on and off the field. He had those expectations and he never wavered whether he was dealing with the best player, or the worst player on the team.

"Coach Farmer is very stoic on the outside, but he has this fire and passion within him that you might not see on game days. There is nobody in the program who has the intensity that Coach Farmer shows every day in practice. Not a lot of people saw that, but he earned the respect of everyone with his approach to the game."

Stevie Powers played for Farmer and was a star on the Cadet squad that won a state title before going on to play college ball at Southern Miss. He loved his time playing for Farmer and experienced that intensity up close and personal. He is still very close with Farmer, who called to tell him about his decision Thursday morning.

"I remember Coach Farmer took over between my freshman and junior seasons," Powers said. "And in our first workout with him, he had us get down on our hands and knees and Army crawl from first to third base. He wanted to let us know that this was our field, and we were going to get dirty and be gritty. He made it clear we were going to be a blue-collar program from Day 1."

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Powers was a junior in 2014 when the Cadets won the second state title in school history, and the first since 1961. He remembers the win in the championship series against Greater Atlanta Christian like it was yesterday, but can't forget how Farmer pushed his players to get there.

"We had a game at Vidalia that season where we played really sloppy baseball, but still managed to win. We got on the bus and were all loose, jamming out to our music all the way home," said Powers, who is now married with a young son living in Savannah. "But when we got off that bus, Coach Farmer told us to get our tennis shoes on. He took us out behind home plate and had us running laps around our field for like an hour at 10 p.m. after a win. He pushed us hard when he had to, but he also knew when it was was time to step back and relax and have some fun. I loved playing for him."

Powers said Farmer would work a regular 40-hour week shift in his role as an administrator and during baseball season would put in another 40 hours working with the team. Powers said Farmer wants to spend more time with his wife Sarah and teenage daughter Emma, and that was the big reason behind his decision to step down.

And Farmer said family will be his focus going forward, along with his role as BC's vice principal.

“I love the game of baseball. I could coach this game forever,” Farmer said. "Education and coaching are different from many jobs. We choose this profession to positively influence our student athletes and help them succeed in life. But coaching takes away from quality family time. I appreciate my wife and daughter for always supporting me and making sacrifices for so many years."

Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at Dknight@savannahnow.com. Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Benedictine's Kevin Farmer announces retirement as Cadet baseball coach