Jordan-Matthews is welcoming a new set of coaches on the diamond.

Gerrick Brenner will be the Jets’ next head baseball coach, and Preston Parks will lead the softball program this spring. Brenner and Parks will take over for Holly and Will Felder. Holly Felder coached the softball team for five seasons, and Will Felder served on Jordan-Matthews’ baseball staff since 2022 (became the head coach in 2024). The couple is expecting their first child in March.

Last season, the softball team went 12-10 and reached the second round of the state playoffs, while the baseball team went 6-18 and fell in the first round of the state tournament.

Brenner, a teacher at Chatham Early College, is coming from E.E. Smith, where he was an assistant varsity baseball coach. He helped the Golden Bulls reach the playoffs for the first time in over 30 years this past spring.

“That was a great experience,” Brenner said. “We came into a program that had some hard knocks. They were not used to winning. And we just stayed after it. We came every single day with a very intentional practice plan. The kids knew that we were coming everyday to really get after it and teach baseball.”

Jordan-Matthews will be Brenner’s fifth high school coaching position (as an assistant or head coach), including three schools in Southern California. Prior to coaching, Brenner was a standout baseball player at a small high school in California and earned an opportunity to play at Cal. He got cut from the team before getting the chance to compete, but he stayed and received a history degree.

Brenner worked in television news for over a decade, including a stint with ABC 11 from 2006-10. He is also a former Minor League Baseball umpire.

For Brenner, winning at Jordan-Matthews will be important, but it won’t be the main goal.

“I think the main thing to accomplish is a culture of people really enjoying each other and really enjoying playing baseball at Jordan-Matthews,” Brenner said.

Said Brenner, “You want a program in which more people want to come and participate in. You want a program where people are curious about what’s going on over there.”

Brenner views the Jordan-Matthews position as a “long-term opportunity.”

“If you really are intentional, and you put your heart and full energy into things,” Brenner said. “And people realize that you are in it for the right reasons, and you’re teaching baseball not just to win games, but to build better people and teach character and sportsmanship and fundamentals of the game, the wins are going to happen.”

As for Parks, not much is new except the job title and its expectations.

Parks is a familiar face around the Jordan-Matthews program as he’s coached some of the players at feeder school Silk Hope. He’s also served as the general manager of Chatham County Post 292 of the USA Softball Heroes League, which has held numerous Jets on its roster over the past few years. His daughter, Ella, will also return as a sophomore and a key pitcher this spring.

“I know what the girls are great at (and) what they need to work on,” Parks said. “But we’re also trying to get new girls to come out. There’s a lot of athletes at Jordan-Matthews, and we’re trying to encourage those girls to play multiple sports. We’re hoping to get those athletes that maybe have sat out on softball from previous years.”

The objective for Parks’ team in his first season is to compete, and he’s going above and beyond to be sure his girls can do just that.

“We’re like the only team around that doesn’t have a batting cage,” Parks said. “And I have been working my tail off, and I’ve got it halfway hung, and I just got a few more things I’ve got to do. Anybody that steps in and tries to run a program, the one thing they do want to do is try to leave it better than they found it. Holly did a great job of that.”

With the success the program experienced under Felder and the graduation of standout pitcher Lilli Hicks, Parks acknowledged the “pressure” that’ll be placed on him to lead the program forward.

“I’ll take it,” Parks said. “We’re going to try to do the best we can. We just want to compete. We compete and we improve, we’re going to have a good time. That’s what we’re looking forward to the most.”