Longwood’s Bolding found bliss: producing winning teams, coaches

According to a former Longwood baseball player with a knack for numbers-crunching, Buddy Bolding has thrown approximately 6.5 million batting-practice pitches since he began coaching that school's team in 1979.

Bolding, 61, may be good for 10 million.

"Colonel Sanders made pretty good chicken when he was in his elder years," Bolding said. "I have no particular fascination about sitting in a rocking chair, rocking back and forth and falling asleep."

Bolding's 31st Longwood team is 20-12, on track for the program's 29th winning season. In addition to successful springs, the Lancers churn out coaches. The last time Bolding counted, nearly 40 of his former players are high school or college baseball coaches, including five Central Region head coaches: Tim Lowery (Cosby), Mickey Roberts (Prince George), Fred Stoots (Matoaca), Scott Hueston (Midlothian) and Sam Hart (Patrick Henry).

"He has touched a lot of lives in a lot of ways," Lowery, in his 22nd season as an area high school coach, said of Bolding. "I know I became a better person by being with him."

Part of Longwood's propensity for producing coaches is related to the school's respected teacher-education programs. But there also is a Bolding component at work, in the estimation of Stoots, who said "You could tell how much fun and joy he gets out of the game, and I think he instills that in his players."

Bolding grew up near Vinton (east of Roanoke) and defines himself as a "simple country boy." As a youngster, he played baseball in cow fields (unpredictable infield hops influenced his decision to pitch and play outfield) and says he earned enough money for his first glove by helping a moon-shiner relocate a still.

Longwood administrators viewed a baseball program, launched in 1978, as a way to lure male applicants to the school. Bolding was contacted about the job while teaching chemistry and biology, and coaching, at Staunton River High in Bedford County. Longwood baseball, Bolding-style, was a mom-and-pop operation. Bolding, without assistance, supervised the team. His wife, Andrea, was the PA announcer for home games.

Since, Longwood has made six appearances in the Division II tournament and two advancements to the NCAA Division II World Series, upgraded to Division I, and generated seven picks in the Major League Baseball draft. Former Lancers' outfielder Michael Tucker was a first-round pick in 1992 and played a dozen big-league seasons.

The bus rides. The recruiting. The rescheduling headaches due to weather. None of it seems to deflate Bolding, whose career record is 838-447-4. He found his bliss in Farmville. "I was privileged to make it through that Vietnam crap, and survive that, though I probably shouldn't have," said Bolding, who served as a U.S. Army medic in Vietnam.

"I think I know who I am. I'm happy, content with who I am, what I'm doing, and can't get enough of it."

Contact John O'Connor at (804) 649-6233 or .