JC Alexander photo.

 

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

CHINA GROVE — JC Alexander is counting down the days to Carson’s first official baseball practice on Feb. 12.

It’s less than a month away now. After that first practice, the Cougars will have two weeks to prepare for their debut.

Alexander has worn many different hats during his years with the Cougar program — outfielders coach, hitting coach, associate head coach — but now he’s the head coach for the first time. He’s got plenty of help — legend Chris Cauble, veteran Rob Hales, pitching guru Jesse Park and young Alex Shumaker — but as everyone who has watched an Amazing Spider-Man film knows, with more power comes more responsibility.

Now Alexander has to deal with more off-field stuff — fans, parents, administration, media.

Carson AD Josh Trexler made the surprise announcement shortly before Christmas that Kyle Bridges, who had guided the Cougars in 2023 and 2024, would not be returning. Bridges exited for the same reason that makes most coaches exit, the time that coaching takes away from family. Bridges is a husband and dad, and as much he loves baseball, he loves his family more. He’s stepping back from high school coaching, although he will stay involved in baseball as one of the coaches for the showcase teams fielded by the South Charlotte Panthers. The Panthers play mostly in the summer, a somewhat less stressful time. If you teach and coach during the school year, there are days when you may not see your family between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Alexander was named as the interim head coach to replace Bridges shortly after the Christmas break. Carson didn’t have to undertake a national search. Alexander was a logical choice. He’s been part of the Cougar family for years. He’s an on-campus teacher. He already knows the school, the assistants, the fan base, the field, the players, the future players and the opponents.

He knows how good the opponents are. Carson’s neighbors — South Rowan (2022) and East Rowan (2024) — have won 3A state championships in the last three years.

“JC is a great guy,” Carson AD Josh Trexler said. “He’s a really hard worker who has invested a ton of time and effort in our baseball program. Carson athletics is lucky to have him.”

Alexander has a unique background. He’s a baseball person — the 2025 season will be his 20th coaching the sport — but he’s also seen a lot of life beyond the diamond.

He grew up in a military family. He’s third-generation Air Force. When you grow up in North Carolina with a father who is in the Air Force that means growing up in Goldsboro near Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. When his father retired from the Air Force, the family moved to to Rowan County.

Alexander played baseball at Erwin Middle School with guys who became well-known athletes at East Rowan, but he didn’t play ball at East. Instead, he worked for Food Lion, taking on quite a bit of responsibility for a high school student in the dairy and produce departments.

Food Lion and Junior ROTC consumed his time. He graduated with East’s Class of 1999.

Then Alexander spent 13 years in the Air Force. He was stationed at Seymour Johnson, at Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, S.C., and at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea. He also was deployed in the Middle East and southwest Asia. He spent time in Saudi Arabia, Quatar, Kuwait and Turkey. He was serving in Saudi Arabia on Sept. 11, 2001, a day that will always be a big part of who he is.

“Every day in the Air Force you know you’re working to maintain freedom,” Alexander said. “But that day hit different.”

Alexander’s role in the Air Force was armament systems technician. He led crews that tackled the challenging job of safely loading and securing missiles and bombs on F-15s and F-16s during the hot times. During peaceful times, he became an expert on maintaining weapons systems as well as mechanical and electrical systems. In his later years in the Air Force, he was training the armament technicians who would follow him.

He needed an outlet from those intense work days and found it in baseball.

“That all started in 2005,” he said. “That’s when I volunteered as a coach at the middle school in Goldsboro.”

Years of volunteer coaching let Alexander know that he wanted to coach and teach whenever he left the Air Force.

The G.I. Bill gave him an opportunity to get a college degree, and Alexander knew he’d found his calling when he began his full-time coaching and teaching career at Midway High School in Dunn. He taught business, coached the jayvee baseball team and was the varsity assistant at a school that competed for state titles. Midway was runner-up in 1A in 2012 and 2A champion after moving up a classification in 2013.

“For a small school, Midway was blessed with really good players,” Alexander said.

Alexander left Midway because he had an opportunity to teach and coach back in Rowan County at Erwin Middle School. He was a business, marketing and keyboarding teacher and assisted Eddie Guessford with the baseball team. That was in 2014.

After a year at Erwin, his leadership skills made Alexander a natural for the central office, and he took on the job of career development coordinator. He served in that capacity for the next five years in the southern Rowan area. Those years led him to Carson and a reunion with Cauble. Cauble was glad to add his former P.E. student as an experienced volunteer coach.

Alexander enjoyed his time with the central office, but eventually he decided he wanted to get back in the classroom. He missed working with the students. He missed passing on life lessons. In December 2019, he was hired as a business education teacher at Carson, and he’s never regretted it.

Alexander has been part of Carson baseball for tough playoff losses — to Crest in the fourth round in 2018, Owen White’s senior year, and to Marvin Ridge in 2019 when the Cougars set the school record with 28 victories, but fell one win shy of getting to the 3A State Championship Series. Then there was the 2020 season that was crushed by COVID. Dylan Driver was 11-for-13 in his last four games before that season abruptly died. The current Catawba College star might have batted .700.

While there have been some devastating losses, there also have been a lot of fine players and great wins in China Grove. Carson has produced a number of college stars, White made it to the big leagues. It’s a very solid baseball school, year after year.

“Carson has competed very well in a baseball league that I honestly believe is the best in the state,” Alexander said.

Cauble retired as Carson’s head coach with a 275-134 record, compiled from 2007-22. Bridges coached the Cougars to their 300th victory and was 29-24 in his two seasons. Both of Bridges’ teams finished in the top tier of the South Piedmont Conference. Both made the second round of the 3A playoffs.

Alexander stays busy as a husband, father, educator and baseball coach. He’s coached at just about every level along the way to his first high school head coaching job, including Carson Junior American Legion. He’s also the head coach of a team for the strong Wow Factor showcase organization.

But now he’s ready to pour heart and soul into the 2025 version of the Cougars and he’s ready to take on the SPC.

“We’ll have a smaller senior class than usual,” Alexander said. “But those seniors will be impactful, and we’ve got a really talented group of younger players.”

Carson outfielder Jayven Parks has committed to Belmont Abbey, a solid Division II program.