Bigg man on campus

When Bill Biggs took over as coach at Lindhurst High four years ago, he inherited a softball program in shambles.

The Blazers had just wrapped up an 0-11 campaign in a season cut short due to a loss of players for academic reasons. Biggs was the junior varsity coach at the time and knew that huge changes were in order before taking over the varsity squad the following year.

Biggs lost a couple players due to grades during his initial season and decided that enough was enough. To remedy the problem he implemented his policy — grades before athletics.

"We have a mandatory study hall from 3 to 4 p.m. And if you don't make study hall, you don't practice, and if you don't practice, you don't play in the game," said Biggs, who also imposed mandatory grade checks to ensure his players stay on the field.

"It's made a huge difference. We had 14 players on the team this year and 11 of them were scholar athletes," he said. "That was a real big thing on awards night."

Biggs began to turn things around on the diamond as well, leading Lindhurst to consecutive 15-win seasons in 2007 and 2008 and an 11-win campaign last year.

This season he did even more by guiding the Blazers to an 18-10 record and to within a game of playing for the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VI title. Lindhurst also won a share of the Golden Empire League championship, the school's first league crown in softball since 1993.

He was named GEL Coach of the Year and thanks to his efforts both on and off the diamond, Biggs has been named the Appeal-Democrat All-Area Coach of the Year as well. "I've consistently had a great group of hard-working kids and good assistants," he said. "I had a great group of seniors, a great group of parents and the principal and athletic director always give a lot of support."

While his turnaround of the Blazers' program is remarkable, it's not just his own players he's helped to improve. Biggs has given private pitching lessons for the past six years and has played an important role in making the Mid-Valley area pitching rich when it comes to softball.

Among the standouts he has tutored at one time or another are Sutter's Jolene Graham, Lindhurst's Jordan Stanaland, Colusa's Tiffany Friel, East Nicolaus' Amanda Taylor, Wheatland's Randi May and Yuba City's Maria LaBouyer — just to name a few.

"It started a few years ago when I helped out at a clinic," Biggs recalled. "When we got done with it I had 15 kids asking for lessons. I'm bad at saying no, so it kind of started there."

Helping coach players from other teams have made things interesting for his own club, too, Biggs said.

"We've lost to a couple of teams and my players ask 'Hey didn't you coach that girl?'"

Coaching, no problem. Hitting, that's a different story.

"I coach it pretty well, but I don't hit very well," Biggs chuckled.