HUDSON — Citing a desire to spend more time with his family, Peter Dedrick announced on Monday he is stepping down as coach of the Columbia-Greene Community College softball team.
“The decision was based on my family,” Dedrick said. “I wanted to be with them from day one.”
Dedrick took over the softball program in 2009 which was coming off a one-win season the year before. Since then, the Twins have been a consistent winner, earning eight Region III Tournament appearances and a 22-win season in 2012.
Columbia-Greene has also had players named All-Region and All Conference along with Academic All-Americans during Dedrick’s tenure.
Dedrick enjoyed his 11-years as Twins coach and is grateful he had the opportunity to work with so many talented student-athletes that chose to attend C-GCC.
“I’ll miss a lot from C-GCC,” Dedrick said. “I’ll miss giving the local talent pool a chance to play.”
Dedrick is proud of the fact the Twins were able to compete with some of the best teams in the Region.
“C-GCC, in my opinion, is a special place,” Dedrick said. “We were always the David vs. Goliath. We were hungry on that and we proved a lot of colleges wrong!”
Most of C-GCC’s opponents have a built-in advantage when it comes to recruiting because of on-campus housing, but Dedrick never used that as an excuse.
“I’ll miss local recruiting and see the high level talent thrive,” he said. “Columbia County is loaded. My goal was to give the local athletes a chance.”
Dedrick will have plenty of fond memories to look back on.
“Wow, memories! My first-year team was amazing,” Dedrick said. “Went from 0 wins to seven. First year I ever coached, I always brag about that. I also brag about 2012. We went 22-7 and were one of the smallest schools in the region.”
Even though he’s walking away from the game he loves right now, Dedrick said his coaching career is far from over.
I love the game more then anything,” he said. “I will definitely be back at some point, but family comes first. The joy of coaching is irreplaceable. Until then, tip of the cap.”