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⚾ Destin High School hired former MLB player Scott Hemond as its new head baseball coach, bringing decades of professional and local coaching experience to the team.
📈 Hemond aims to build a competitive program immediately as the Sharks join FHSAA competition for the first time in 2026.
🏆 The team features several returning seniors and experienced players, with hopes to earn their first winning season under Hemond’s leadership.
Destin High School announced the hiring of Scott Hemond as the head baseball coach this week. Hemond is no stranger to the area, owning and operating a baseball training facility in Destin since 2008. He is also no stranger to the game, as his impressive resume includes an eight-year career in Major League Baseball and a Hall of Fame enshrinement at the University of South Florida.
Now, he hopes to leverage his local and professional experience to lead the Destin High School Baseball Team to heights it has yet to reach in its four years as a program.
“We had such a huge number of people that applied for the position,” said Destin High School Executive Director Willy Williams. “Naturally, Coach Hemond rose right to the top. We’re really excited to debut and introduce Coach Hemond as the new Destin High School baseball coach.”
There hasn’t been a day in the last 20 years that Scott Hemond wasn’t coaching baseball in some capacity.
Hemond has seen 90 of his trainees at the Scott Hemond Baseball Facility commit to play baseball and softball at the collegiate level since he opened in 2005. Notable names on the school’s roster include The Cinncinati Reds’ Rece Hinds and Phoenix Sanders, guys who have both found success at the Major League level.
Hemond previously served as the head baseball coach for Destin Middle School, but wants to coach at the high school level. His goals are clear:
“I’d like to win a state championship,” said Hemond at his first players meeting Monday night. “That would be the big one for me, as a team. I want to find everybody a role and make sure it is a team effort.”
This is Hemond’s last shot at being a high school coach, he told his players and their families at their team meeting Tuesday. He brings plenty of laurels along with him.
Hemond began his baseball career at Dunedin High School in Dunedin, Florida – the same high school that produced Current Governor and Yale Baseball Player Ron DeSantis. His stellar prep career guided him to the University of South Florida, just an hour’s drive from his hometown. While playing for the Bulls, he would become the only two-time All-American in USF baseball history, finishing the 1986 season as a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award, the honor given to the best player in college baseball.
After initially being drafted in round five of the MLB Draft out of high school and electing to play in college, Hemond was picked again in the MLB Draft after his ’86 campaign. This time, he went 12th overall to the Oakland Athletics. He became, and still is today, USF’s highest draft pick in Major League Baseball history.
The first-rounder went on to play seven seasons in the MLB, playing for the Oakland A’s, Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. He won a World Series with A’s in 1989 and an American League Championship in 1990.
When baseball season officially starts in 2026, it will be Destin’s first opportunity to do just that. Until this year, the Sharks had competed independently of any Florida High School Athletic Association classification. Now, Hemond’s group will be competing in the FHSAA State Series.
“Goals-wise, it would be to make this team competitive instantly,” said Hemond. “This year.”
The MLB veteran certainly has lofty goals and high expectations, but he also knows it will be a building process to reach them. Coaching a number of kids on the team individually before becoming their high school head coach, Hemond has a unique advantage.
“I’m looking forward to building and getting these guys in a system,” Hemond said. “Some guys, I know what they can do. I’m going to be asking them to do more and lead. It’s like being the captain of a ship. You want to find your leaders, make sure they’re in charge and make sure no man is left behind.”
An opportunity to change the trajectory
As one would expect with a newer high school, Destin baseball has not necessarily had a tradition of success.
It took them 27 games across their first two seasons to record the first win in program history. It has gradually improved over the last two years, as the Sharks flirted with their first .500 record in 2025.
Now, with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the form of Coach Hemond at the helm, the Sharks feel it may be their time to turn things around in year number five. Five members of the 2026 team will now have been playing baseball for Destin High School since just its second season as a program.
Rising seniors Landon Ullbrich and Palmer Robbins will return as above .300 hitters a season ago. Caleb Wright is another four-year Shark who produced solid numbers last year, tallying one of Destin’s two home runs and six RBIs. Wright also led the team on the mound, going 3-3 with a team-low ERA of 2.54.
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