Roger Wright
Class of 2016
Roger Wright was a baseball man from the beginning. Growing up in Chapman Heights near Huntsville’s Five Points district, he played other sports, especially basketball, but baseball was always the game that defined him. That passion led to success first as a player and then as one of the most respected high school baseball coaches in North Alabama.
At Lee High School in the early 1980s, Wright emerged as a dominant pitcher during a period when the Generals were one of the area’s strongest baseball programs. A three-year letterman known as “Dawg,” he compiled 30 victories, the most in school history, and helped lead Lee to Final Four appearances in 1981 and 1983. One of his most memorable performances came in that 1983 state tournament when he outdueled future major leaguer Jeff Brantley in a 3-2 Lee victory.
Wright continued playing at Calhoun Community College, where he set a school fielding record for a pitcher, and later moved on to the University of North Alabama. While still a senior at UNA, he got his first real taste of coaching by helping with the junior varsity team, and soon discovered his true calling.
He returned to Huntsville and began coaching at Lee in 1989, assisting in football, basketball and baseball. In 1997 he was named head baseball coach at Buckhorn High School, where he built one of the area’s most successful programs over the next 17 years. Wright won nearly 400 games, guided Buckhorn to 12 state playoff appearances and earned Metro Coach of the Year honors five times.
His coaching career produced countless memories, including Buckhorn’s unforgettable 2012 playoff series against Sparkman, when a rain-delayed second game did not end until 1 a.m. and the school community still packed the stands.
Wright retired in 2014 to spend more time with his family, including his son, Kyle, a major league pitcher. Wright returned to the sidelines as an assistant at UAH, then was offered the opportunity as athletic director at Alabama School of Cyber Technology and Engineering. As both player and coach, he gave North Alabama baseball a lifetime of steady excellence.
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