Longtime Vestavia Hills High School baseball coach Sammy Dunn is regarded as one of the most successful coaches in the history of Alabama high school baseball. Over 27 seasons at Vestavia, Dunn amassed a career record of 647-146 (.816) and led his baseball teams to nine Alabama 6-A state titles from 1991-2000, including a stretch of seven-straight from 1994-2000.
Dunn’s 1998 team was named national champion by the National High School Baseball Coaches Association (NHSBCA), for which Dunn received National Coach of the Year honors. He would again be named the National Coach of the Year in 2004.
Dunn, who passed away in 2004, was the winningest baseball coach in Alabama high school history at the time of his passing. His Vestavia teams never posted a losing season, and more than 100 of his players went on to earn college scholarships. In fact, 12 Vestavia alumni participated on teams in the 1996 College World Series in Omaha.
Dunn, who led the Vestavia baseball program from 1978-2004, received numerous local coaching honors including six Alabama Baseball Coaches Association (ALABCA) 6-A Coach of the Year Awards and seven Jefferson County Coach of the Year Awards.
He also served as an assistant coach on the football staff from 1978-98 and was an assistant basketball coach. Chris Hammond played for Dunn in the early 1980s and went on to a 14-season Major League career. Dunn served on the 1984 Baseball Olympic Selection Committee as director of the Southern States Conference Baseball Tournament.
Also instrumental in growing the game of baseball in Alabama, Dunn founded the Alabama Baseball Coaches Association in 1995. He was inducted into the ALABCA Hall of Fame in 2000, the first coach to receive that honor, and the ALABCA now presents the Sammy Dunn Memorial Award annually to one of the Alabama high school baseball state champion coaches for their exemplary season. The award is the association’s highest honor. He served as President of the Jefferson County Baseball Coaches Association from 1993-94.
Dunn, who was inducted into the Montevallo Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997, played third base for the Falcons for two seasons from 1974-75. He transferred to Montevallo prior to his junior season after being named the Alabama Co-Player of the Year at Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham.
He was inducted into the Alabama High School Athletic Association Sports Hall of Fame in 2004 and received the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame’s first-ever Frank House Award that same year. In 2010, Dunn was inducted into the inaugural class of the Vestavia Hills Sports Hall of Fame, and the school’s baseball stadium is named in his honor.
