vidalia — If you want to understand what baseball means to the Hoffpauir family, go back twenty years ago to when Pearl River Community College head coach Josh Hoffpauir was a senior at Vidalia High School.

In 1996, then Vidalia baseball coach Johnny Hoffpauir was in a state championship game. He was the 1996 Louisiana Coach of the Year and his son, Josh, was the Louisiana Player of the Year.

In 35 years of coaching high school baseball, Johnny has one state championship. He won it in that 1996 season with his son as senior captain of his team. Josh said it was the biggest accomplishment between he and his father, and Johnny said he remembers every pitch of that last game.

“When it was over and we had won it, I was in such awe about it,” Johnny said. “There was about a 10-second gap where I just blanked out and looked around at the kids jumping around.”

Johnny is no longer in coaching, but his son in is his sixth year as head coach of Pearl River Community College’s program. Josh’s squad played a doubleheader against LSU-Alexandria on Wednesday on the field his father helped build as Vidalia’s director of parks.

Josh has arranged a doubleheader for Pearl River at the Concordia Recreation District 3 Complex three out of the last four seasons. He played the first game at the complex against Baton Rouge Community College four years ago.

Vidalia is approximately three hours from Pearl River’s campus in Poplarville, but Josh said it feels like a home game for his team. His parents live down the street, the spectators are old friends, and his team is treated to a good meal and hospitality.

“Dad does a good job of taking care of us, and making sure everybody eats well,” Josh said. “Dad does a good job of taking care of us and making sure everybody eats well,” Josh said. “Mom (Pam) is the rock and makes sure my guys have candy for the bus ride home.”

Johnny said the near-annual return to Vidalia gives his son a chance to give back to the city and people who supported him while growing up.

Although Josh said his sugar-high team could drive him crazy on the bus ride home Wednesday night, he can’t gripe about his team’s winning ways this season. Heading into Wednesday’s doubleheader, Pearl River was 8-2. The Wildcats have scored at least 11 runs in six of those games. Offensively, Josh said he’s pleased where his team is after ten games.

Josh saw some success out of the gate as Pearl River’s coach. He took over for former coach Jamie McMahon in 2010 and led the Wildcats to the 41 wins — the second most in school history — in 2013. Now, his team is trying to shake off a 14-29 campaign in 2015, which Josh is short to comment on.

Josh brings Division I playing experience from Southern Mississippi, some professional playing experience at the minor-league level and some genetically transmitted baseball strategy — his brother, Jarrett Hoffpauir, played in MLB for the Cardinals and Blue Jays, and is currently the coach of Delta Charter’s baseball program.

Johnny said he thinks the best thing his son brings to his position as Pearl River’s coach is his talent for recruiting. Johnny said he never had any doubt his son would eventually be a coach, watching all of his father’s games from the dugout when he was 5 years old.

“It didn’t take me long to know he could coach at a high level because of his skills with recruiting,” Johnny said. “(Josh) is a good communicator. He can relate to the kids and that’s important.”

Perhaps, one of the toughest obstacles a coach at the community college level can face is the brief commitment players have to their schools. Small schools are often used as a springboard to moving up to play at universities. Johnny remarked that, as a high school coach, the best thing about a good freshman player is that he will have them for three more years.

His son doesn’t have the same luxury, but Josh said he believes players should commit to where they are now.

“I tell every kid that sits at my desk, ‘If you’re coming here because you’re looking for your next opportunity, it’s not a good place for you,’” Josh said. “The reason we’ve had so many guys go on to four-year schools is because they come in and commit to it.”

Josh said his dad will still gives he and Jarrett advice, no matter how much collegiate or professional experience the two have mustered over their careers.

Johnny admits there isn’t a ton of advice he can offer his touted sons on the baseball field, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t second-guess them sometimes.

“On the baseball field, strategy-wise, I know better,” Johnny said.

“We’ve been around the game for a long time,” Josh said. “Coming from a baseball household, it’s in our blood. I don’t think I’d want to do anything else.”