Kitchen will lead Central baseball team next season

~ The recently resigned Jackson coach returns to his alma mater

Tatum Kitchen was named the baseball coach at Central High School on Monday.

Kitchen, a 1998 graduate of Central and 2004 graduate of Southeast Missouri State, replaces longtime Tigers coach Steve Williams, who resigned recently to accept teaching and football coaching positions in Smyrna, Tenn.

"The opportunity to go back there, it just blows my mind," Kitchen said. "I could not be more thrilled."

Kitchen recently resigned his duty as baseball coach at Jackson High School, a position he held since 2009. His 2013 team won 20 games for the first time in school history, and he was named SEMO Conference Coach of the Year.

His father, Terry Kitchen, coached baseball at Central from 1979 to 1991 and led the Tigers to four final four berths. An uncle, Paul Kitchen, is also a former baseball coach at Central.

"I could not be more thrilled," Tatum Kitchen said about following in his family's footsteps. "It's amazing how it worked out."

Kitchen said he had decided last fall that the 2012-13 season would be his last at Jackson. He planned on entering the private sector and had begun taking courses on financial planning when the Central position opened up with Williams' resignation.

"Never in a million years, I never thought that Coach Williams would leave," Kitchen said, noting that as of three weeks ago he still was on track to become a financial planner. "I could not have lived with myself if I didn't inquire about that job."

Kitchen said it was in the middle of transitioning from high school coach to businessman that he realized coaching was his true calling.

"I had a great job at Jackson," he said. "It's a miracle it worked out this way. It made me realize how much I enjoyed teaching and coaching."

Jackson named assistant Bryan Austin as its new coach in April.