Legacy Eagles Varsity Baseball Coach Andrew Embry has reached a milestone 300 wins. And he did it definitively – with an 11-1 victory over Prince of Peace. This is Coach Embry's 16th season as the Eagles Head Coach, making the landmark victory that much sweeter.
Coach Embry started his coaching career with Frisco ISD where he coached football and baseball. He then moved to Legacy Christian Academy in 2002 when founders Jay and Jenny Allison offered him a position to develop the athletic program. In his 16 years at Legacy, he has served as Athletic Director in addition to coaching both football and baseball. His teams have accumulated seven district championships with a great many more success stories along the way.
A love of sports and a genuine passion for the game of baseball has been ingrained in him since he was a child. He has always been a well-rounded and skilled athlete himself, running track and playing football over and above playing both high school and select baseball simultaneously. His late father, Pete Embry played baseball at UT-Austin and then went on to play in the Major Leagues for the Chicago Cubs, so baseball is literally in his genes.
Over the course of his life, there have been several influential men besides his father who have helped to mold him into the coach he is today. He holds his role as coach in high regard and is honored to have the opportunity to influence and build up young men. Assistant Baseball Coach Scot McCollum said, “Coach Embry has made a major impact on the lives of baseball players since the day he stepped onto campus. He has spent countless hours mentoring and building relationships with his players. He continues to pour into the young men and helps them prepare not just for baseball, but more importantly, for life.”
Anyone who knows Coach Embry or has very much interaction with him quickly realizes he is an aficionado of acronyms and regularly employs them. His life motto and mission both on and off the sports field is fixed into the acronym GUTS, which translates to Gaining Understanding Through Suffering. GUTS is rooted in Hebrews 5:8.
Though He was God's Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.”
–Hebrews 5:8
It entails putting forth an amazing effort with a positive attitude, all while exhibiting mental toughness. It involves being clean and playing a game that is mistake-free, all while remaining humble. This evolved, game-centered, and forward-thinking yet modest mentality has helped him achieve an impressive 300 wins here at Legacy.
Athletic Director Cole Johnson had this to share about Coach Embry and his milestone win; “Few coaches in today's world even have 300 games. Coach Embry, through hard work, resilience, dedication…along with blood, sweat, and tears has managed to coach past 300 wins. This is tremendous.”
The entire Embry family is all in at Legacy. Coach Embry's wife, Lisa, has been teaching at Legacy for five years and they have two children who are very active at the school. Their daughter, Natalie, is a junior and is one of the team photographers. She can frequently be seen capturing action shots for just about every sport. Their son, Luke, is an eighth grader and is, not surprisingly, active in sports. He runs track and plays football for Legacy.