Haire picked up an interview on a whim with one of Vaught’s former assistants and the head coach of Sterling College, Scott Norwood, that Friday. Norwood’s assistant coach had left the program, leaving an opening for a young, eager-to-learn assistant.
Five days later, Haire had his Isuzu Trooper packed to the brim, ready to move to Sterling, KS, with no idea what was ahead of him.
“This is something different, something new, it’s a risk because where I was in my life, I had no strings attaching me to anything,” Haire told The Hamiltonian. “I just had this inherent feeling that I was going to do something cool.
“I drove through the night, got there in time for practice Thursday, and was off to the races.”
Haire had almost quit his sales job to get into the insurance world. A slight step up in status, not requiring him to wear a men’s warehouse suit and cheap shoes, as he explained it.
Now, he was on the way to the middle of nowhere to a school that has around 475 students and is one of the smallest NAIA schools in the country to live in the dorms on campus.
Sterling was a rather successful program before Haire got there, with Norwood having two years leading the program under his belt. That success continued, with Sterling reaching the regional tournament in Haire’s first year as assistant.
That summer, Norwood took the opportunity to coach Ouachita (“Wash-taw”) Baptist University in Arkansas. Its baseball program was in a slide, posting a 9-45 record the year prior. Norwood brought Haire with him, coaxing him with the promise of a massive nine-month, $3,000 contract for his services. It came out to $295 a month to be an assistant baseball coach.
“To do what you want and get what you want, sometimes you just have to figure it out as you go along,” Haire said.
“The money is whatever, just go and figure it out. As long as you’re doing something you’re passionate about and makes you get out of bed in the morning, the rest of the stuff will get figured out.”
Four years after that night drive through the Midwest, Haire had learned as much as one could about the coaching profession. He had gone into it with a rich background of playing underneath legends such as Terry Malone and Mark Maus at Badin, Danny Schmitz at Bowling Green State, and Gary Vaught at UIndy.
“I was fortunate to have been around winners,” Haire said on his time playing. “Guys who know how to win and have a knack for what they are doing.”
“When you are around guys that win at a high level, it rubs off on you to some extent.”
Haire didn’t have all the pieces to the coaching puzzle, but he learned over time the most important part of coaching is relationships, and surrounding yourself with high-quality people that everybody can connect with and have the willingness to buy into.
“It was as fun and exciting of four years as I’ve had,” Haire said on the early years of his coaching career. “It was super formative to me.”
That attitude helped him when he took his next step, which would no doubt be his most challenging. Greg Goff had coached in the same conference as Haire during his time at Ouachita, leading the University of Montevallo baseball team. He had taken the job at Campbell University in North Carolina in the summer of 2007 and recruited Haire to come join his staff.
When he agreed to join Goff, Haire didn’t think he’d end up spending almost 17 years there. He told his then-girlfriend and now-wife it would be the same situation as the past couple of stops at Sterling and Ouachita.
“I told her, ‘We’re going to be at Campbell for 3-4 years, and get it flipped around. Then we’ll be off to another place.’ Here we are almost 17 years later.”
Goff and Haire took over Campbell after an 11-45 season, led them to three straight seasons of 40 wins from 2012-2014, and earned the Camels its second NCAA Regional appearance in 2014, the second in school history and first since 1990.
After that season, Goff took an offer from Louisiana Tech and left the head job at Campbell open. Decision makers decided to keep it in the family, making then-33-year-old Justin Haire the leader of the program, and one of the youngest head coaches in the country. Now heading into his 10th year as head coach, Haire has led the Camels to five straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
“We’ve been able to build something that’s really special,” Haire explained. “People from all over the country, all over the globe can come here, they can become the best version of themselves both on the field and off. They can feel really proud of putting on the black and orange. I don’t think that’s something that happens every day and everywhere in the transactional world we live in.”
Haire has used those lessons from his playing career and learning during his time as an assistant to lead him to where he is now. What Campbell has given him is basically what every coach looks for; sustained success and a solid support system in a place you can call home.
“It’s a very small, tight-knit community not unlike Hamilton,” Haire said. “You feel safe, you feel like the people care about what you are doing and care about your student-athletes.”
While Campbell is known by those who know college baseball as a solid program, it doesn’t have the Power 5 brand and prestige that some coaches look for. That doesn’t matter to Haire.
He and his wife have started a family in Buies Creek and have been there long enough to call it home. When those big schools come calling, Haire hasn’t been in any kind of rush to take over another program and relocate his family.
When he got to Campbell, he probably didn’t think he’d fall in love with the town and university. He has, and that love mixed with the effort and commitment that turned Campbell into a winner gives Haire trouble finding a reason to leave.
“The Good Lord has kept us here and provided for us,” Haire said. “If He wants to move our butts somewhere else, He’ll do it. If He wants us to stay here for the next 25 years, He’ll do that too. We want to continue to be open to what He has in store for us. Right now, He’s got us pouring our efforts, energies, and talents into the people here. We feel really good about that.
“Who would’ve thought 20 years ago that I’d be able to make gainful employment coaching baseball at a really high level? At some point, man, that’s just enough.”
This article originally published in The Hamiltonian Magazine, a content partner of the Journal-News.
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