Former Foley High School and Robertsdale High assistant baseball coach Peter Bezeredi has been chosen to replace long-time Baldwin County High School coach Jerry Wright, who recently resigned to pursue an administrative degree.

Bezeredi, who coached one year at Foley under Dendy Messick and six at Robertsdale with Kevin Raley, was chosen out of a group of six candidates by BCHS principal Johnny Cabaniss and athletic director David Wofford, who both praised Bezeredi as a coach and teacher.

Cabaniss, who was also named the school’s principal last week by the Baldwin County School Board after serving for several months as interim principal, said Monday morning that the hiring of Bezeredi was crucial since Wright did not announce his resignation as the school’s baseball coach until late in the summer. Cabaniss and Wofford chose Bezeredi out of a group six applicants, all of whom Cabaniss said were highly qualified as coaches and teachers.

“Coach Bezeredi stood out from those,” Cabaniss said. “We fell very fortunate to have him here.”

The new principal said he contacted each of the schools Bezeredi previously taught and coached at and received positive reports from each one.

“(He was) highly recommended: ‘Knowledgeable of the game; tremendous academic background as far as the teaching; and hard worker,’” were just some of the comments administrators gave about Bezeredi, Cabaniss said. “The improvements (to the baseball field) that have been made so far are just outstanding since he’s been here. He has a thorough baseball background.

“Academics was the first thing that got our attention,” Cabaniss said. “As a coach, you have to teach first, and him being a science teacher, he’s (taught) everything from ninth-grade to senior — the highest sciences taught at Baldwin County. He can teach ‘em all.”

Wofford was equally pleased with Bezeredi’s credentials.

“I’ve known of him before we hired him and I was very impressed,” Wofford said. “He’s worked with some very good baseball coaches, not to mention playing a high level of baseball (in college).

“He was very impressive in the interview, and to take a guy that’s teaching physics and higher-level science and make him a baseball coach, I think that’s an incredible combination.”

BCHS will be Bezeredi’s second head-coaching job.

“I was a head coach at a school in Orlando, Florida for a year before my wife decided she hated Florida,” Bezeredi said. “I’m unbelievably excited to be here.”

A native of Orlando and graduate of Seminole State Community College in Florida and Troy State University where he was a third baseman on the baseball teams, Bezeredi also coached at Lake Sumter Community College for two years in his home state.

“Coming into this thing, I’m really concerned about getting everybody working hard and getting the attitudes correct. I don’t know whether there’s bad attitudes or not, but I just want to work hard and have good practices and crisp practices and let the chips fall where they may,” Bezeredi said.

“As far as my philosophy on baseball … pitching and defense wins a lot of games, and being able to bunt people over and steal bases and make things happen on offense.”

Regarding his academic background, Bezeridi said, “I enjoy science. I especially enjoy physics because … the momentum, the velocity, a lot of it (relates) to baseball and sometimes I can carry that over to the baseball field. My knowledge of hitting and baseball has a lot of physics involved.”