East Mississippi Community College puts finishing touches on baseball coaching staff

SCOOBA – East Mississippi Community College head baseball coach Brett Kimbrel has announced the completion of the Lions' baseball coaching staff. Returning assistant coaches Dylan Earnest and Wesley Sides have moved into elevated roles, while newcomer Chase Honeycutt joins EMCC's baseball coaching staff as a first-year assistant.

Earnest recently completed his third season on Kimbrel's EMCC baseball staff serving primarily as the Lions' pitching coach. During his first three years on the Scooba campus, Earnest has been associated with back-to-back postseason playoff teams during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He has worked with several EMCC pitchers who have advanced to compete at the university level, including 2025 Major League Baseball Draft pick Joe Scarborough (Jacksonville State) of the New York Mets organization, along with University of Montevallo commits Matthew Birdsong and Sam Malone as well as Otis Brooks III (Alabama State) from this past year's Lions pitching staff.

Prior to joining Kimbrel's EMCC staff in 2022, Earnest spent five seasons at his junior college alma mater as an assistant coach on Rick Collier's staff at Itawamba Community College. During his first two seasons back in Fulton, Earnest was a part of consecutive NJCAA Region 23 Tournament teams that both achieved No. 2 national rankings. Featuring standout left-handed pitchers and current pros Houston Harding and Jackson Lancaster, the 2019 Indians won 41 games en route to winning the MACJC Championship with a 24-4 conference mark and finishing as the nation's second-ranked NJCAA Division II team in the final poll.  

During his previous stint on the ICC campus as a left-handed pitcher, Earnest compiled a two-year record of 12-7 with 162 strikeouts in 151.1 career innings pitched for the Indians. He capped his ICC playing days by earning All-MACJC First Team and NJCAA All-Region 23 honors as a sophomore after going 7-4 on the mound with a 1.08 earned run average in 2013. He also allowed only 53 hits with 91 strikeouts and just 16 walks over 83.1 innings pitched that season.

A former Louisville Slugger All-American while pitching for Hamilton High School, Earnest signed with Southeastern Louisiana University before completing his collegiate playing career and getting into coaching as a graduate assistant during his two years at what is now Blue Mountain Christian University.

Sides, a former power-hitting infielder for Kimbrel's 2021 and 2022 EMCC teams, returned to his junior college alma mater prior to this past baseball season as a first-year staff assistant. Heading into the 2025-26 academic year, the Southaven native has taken on some additional recruiting and scouting responsibilities for the Lions.

During his two-year EMCC playing career as a 69-game starter who posted a .311 career batting average and .593 slugging percentage, including 18 home runs and 14 doubles, Sides also totaled 60 RBIs and 71 runs scored for the Lions. He capped his playing days in Scooba by leading the 2022 Lions in average (.346), home runs (13), RBIs (40), runs scored (47), doubles (8), total bases (102), and slugging percentage (.642). Sides' team-best offensive numbers as a sophomore helped lead the 28-19 Lions to a third-place finish in the final MACCC regular-season standings as they made their first NJCAA Region 23 baseball playoff appearance since 2015.

Sides continued his collegiate playing career at Mississippi College, where he finished third on the team in average (.345), home runs (12), RBIs (40), doubles (10), total bases (98), and slugging percentage (.676) as a 45-game senior starter. Along with leading the 2024 Choctaws with a .495 on-base percentage that included a team-high 39 bases on balls, he ranked second on the club with 42 runs scored.

Along with helping lead DeSoto Central High School to a 2019 MHSAA Class 6A baseball championship as a junior and serving as team captain during the Jaguars' pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Sides capped his prep career by receiving the prestigious Bob Patterson Scholarship Award for his impact both on and off the playing field as well as for his involvement with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He also handled play-by-play during DeSoto Central's award-winning Jag TV football and basketball livestream broadcasts.

Honeycutt was a three-year starting catcher for Jones College during the 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons. As a third-year sophomore for the Bobcats, the former DeSoto Central High School standout posted career-best totals in every offensive category, including four home runs, nine doubles, 24 RBIs and 36 runs scored while hitting .273 as a 45-game starter behind the plate.

Honeycutt continued his collegiate baseball career at Missouri-based Lindenwood University, batting .269 as a 32-game starter for the Lions during the 2024 season. During this past year's 30-win season, he worked on staff with Lindenwood's catchers while completing his bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies.

A fellow Southaven product and Sides' former teammate at DeSoto Central, Honeycutt was the starting catcher on the Jaguars' back-to-back MHSAA Class 6A state championship teams. Listed as a 2018-19 Preseason Underclassmen All-American, he was widely considered Mississippi's top catching prospect coming out of high school.