Longtime Murfreesboro area baseball coach Barry Vetter leaves Blackman for Lane College
After more than 30 years of coaching high school baseball − including the past 27 in Rutherford County − Barry Vetter is heading back to the college ranks.
The Blackman baseball coach has resigned to take a job as an assistant at Lane College in Jackson.
It will be his first college gig since he was a graduate assistant pitching coach at MTSU under Steve Peterson in 1990.
"For the last two years I've been looking to get back into college," Vetter said. "I really thought I would end my career in college, where I started. During Labor Day weekend, the (Lane) position opened.
"My biggest regret was that I didn't stay in college from Day 1... I don't know where I would be now. But I wouldn't have traded the last 33 years of high school coaching for anything. I couldn't have gone wrong (either way). I just thought I would be back in college by now."
Vetter spent the past eight seasons at Blackman, where he was the coach the past six years after being an assistant for two. Prior to that he was the coach at Smyrna, where he led the Bulldogs to the 2007 Class AAA state tournament behind current Minnesota Twins ace Sonny Gray.
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He was a pitcher at MTSU (1986-87) before taking a role as a graduate assistant in 1990. He then coached at Shelbyville for six years, including three as a head coach, before taking the Smyrna position in 1995.
The Blaze went 77-81 in five seasons under Vetter (the 2020 season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic). His best season at Blackman was in 2019, when the team went 24-14 and reached the region tournament.
However, that missed 2020 season, which would have included a talented, veteran lineup and a pitching staff led by current Tennessee star Drew Beam, is one that haunts Vetter.
"Probably the best team I ever had, which nobody got to see, was the COVID year," Vetter, who will retire from Tennessee public schools, said. "That team was loaded. We felt confident. We had arms, we had hitters and we went 5-0 that first week. Then it was shut down and we never got to play again. That was tough. Top to bottom it was the best team I ever coached."
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: TSSAA baseball: Blackman coach Barry Vetter leaves for Lane College
