MOULTRIE – It only seems like Will Stuckey has been in the Colquitt County baseball team’s dugout forever.

In fact, since 1995, Stuckey has either been a player or a coach for the Packers every year except 1999-2002, when he was away at college.

He was one of the finest ever to play for the Packers when he was the Colquitt County catcher from 1995-1998, helping lead the team to a state championship in 1997 and final four appearances in 1996 and 1998.

Stuckey came back to work as a volunteer assistant under Jerry Croft from 2003 to 2006 and then has been on the staff under Eric McCranie from 2007-2009 and under Tony Kirkland since then.

That’s 20 years either squatting behind the plate and rifling base hits or teaching a new generation of Packers to do the same.

And it was in the latter position that Stuckey was honored this year as the Georgia Dugout Club’s Class 7A Assistant Coach of the Year.

It was an honor he was pleasantly surprised to receive, but one Kirkland, who was an assistant coach during the time Stuckey played for the Packers, says is well-earned.

Calling him basically the Packers’ assistant head coach, Kirkland allows Stuckey free rein to work with the catchers.

And he has helped groom some excellent receivers, including Max DeMott, Chad Smith, Bo Williams, Spenser Richardson, Zac Goodno, Vann Pitts, Preston Berry and, for the last three seasons, Jay Saunders, who is now being red-shirted at Georgia College.

Kirkland jokingly says Stuckey has had to get back to work this season after years of having Saunders, a member of Team Georgia, as a fixture behind the plate.

But Stuckey obviously enjoys helping develop senior Mack Crosby, who has spent the last two years behind Saunders.

“He’s got some big shoes to fill,” Stuckey said of Crosby while helping get the infield groomed for Colquitt County’s Wednesday game against Jeff Davis. “But his hard work is paying off. He’s really worked on his mechanics, worked some other kinks out and his ball recognition is better.

“He’s 50-percent at throwing guys out and he’s got a veteran pitching staff that he is handling real well.

“He couldn’t be more productive at what he’s doing.”

Stuckey was mostly a pitcher and a shortstop when he was growing up in Norman Park playing for Harry and Larry Spires. He could hardly have had better coaches than the future Colquitt County Sports Hall of Famers.

“They were all about fundamentals,” he said. “They made you work on the little things.

“And they knew the game of baseball.”

By the time he reached the Colquitt County varsity playing for Jerry Croft, Kirkland and Keith Croft, he was a full-time catcher.

“Catching was in my blood,” he says. “That’s all I wanted to do. You get to see everything that’s going on.

“You’re kind of an unsung hero. But your job is to make the pitchers look good. And I liked that.”

And he came by the position naturally. His father Randy has been a catcher at Norman Park High School and Abraham Baldwin College.

“I learned a lot from him,” the younger Stuckey says. “And coach Croft took me to the pitchers and catchers camps at Georgia Tech. And those guys knew what they were doing.”

The Packers were only 13-14 in Stuckey’s freshman season of 1995. They went a combined 77-23 the next three years.

The undisputed highlight of his career was being a member of the 1997 state championship team, the first in Packers history.

Stuckey hit .333 with four home runs and drove in 24 runs.

The biggest thrill was sharing the banner season with his teammates.

The pitching staff included USA Today Player of the Year Hayden Gliemmo (who went 12-2 with a 1.48 ERA, 161 strikeouts, 36 walks), Reggie Stancil (6-1, 1.97 ERA), Travis Morse (3-1 1.97 ERA), Blake Samples (5-0, 2.18 ERA) and Lerenzo Banks.

Stuckey, his brother Waylon Stuckey, Stancil, Trevor Kruger, slick-fielding first baseman Heath Wetherington and Brad Tomlinson led the offense.

Also on the roster were Keith Moody, Ron Sluss, Jared Croft, Kyle Conger, Eric Bell, John Saunders, Chip Venet, Tanner Jenkins, Jonathan Vines and Stephen Mathis.

Gliemmo and Stancil have been inducted into the Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame.

“We had all played together growing up,” he said. Several had been on the 1993 Pony League state championship team.

“We were all real close.”

Stuckey hit .412 as a senior in 1998 when the Packers were ousted by Harrison High and Corey Patterson in the semifinals.

He finished with a career batting average of .351, driving in 85 runs while hitting 30 doubles and 14 home runs.

Stuckey especially enjoyed playing with his brother Waylon, who had been his catcher in recreation baseball.

Waylon hit .350 and .413 in the two years he played alongside his big brother.

“He was one of the best leadoff hitters I’ve seen,” Will says of Waylon.

Will also had the pleasure of catching Gliemmo, who posted a 24-3 record with 1.67 ERA as a Packer before going on to an outstanding career at Auburn and a brief minor league stint in the Angels farm system.

“It was easy,” Stuckey said of being on the receiving end of Gliemmo’s left-handed deliveries.

To illustrate, Stuckey held up his left hand as if getting ready to catch a pitch. “He’d throw it right there. He was automatic.”

One of Stuckey’s most indelible memories of his high school career came in a game against Valdosta when Gliemmo walked the first three batters of the game.

“I went out to the mound and he said, ‘I don’t feel that good,’” Stuckey remembers. “That scared me to death.”

Not to worry. Gliemmo went on to pitch a 1-hitter.

And while many believe Gliemmo is one of the best pitchers produced in Colquitt County, Kirkland said he believes credit for some of his success goes to Stuckey.

“Hayden might be the best I’ve seen” Kirkland said. “But Will made him better. He allowed Hayden to throw that breaking ball in the dirt, knowing he’d block it.”

Stuckey might also have been an excellent football player for the Packers as well, but suffered a broken fibula in a spring practice in 1996 and was not able to play again. He was a defensive tackle, long snapper and occasional pulling guard before the injury.

Like his father, Stuckey went on to play at ABAC, then went to Savannah State and finished up at Valdosta State.

He at first considered sports medicine as a major, but later settled on education and made his way back to Ike Aultman Field to pass along what he had learned.

In fact, he returned just in time to be on the staff of the 2003 Packers baseball team that won a state championship.

And here in Colquitt County he has remained.

An unapologetic country boy, when not at the ball fields, he spends time with wife of 10 years Jodi Beth, a fine Lady Packer soccer player and special ed teacher at Cox Elementary; his Colquitt County Sports Hall of Fame mom Jill Middlebrooks Stuckey and his dad Randy, both still out on the farm in Norman Park; and a host of other like-minded relatives and friends.

“I’m a Packer,” Stuckey says. “I don’t know what I’d do if I went somewhere else.”