Wetumpka looked within for its next head baseball coach.
Russ Brooks has been promoted from assistant coach to lead the Wetumpka baseball program.
He is replacing Michael Dismukes, who recently left the job after seven seasons to take over Elmore County’s program.
Brooks will be taking over as the head coach for the second time in his Wetumpka career. He previously spent two seasons as head coach in his first stint at the school.
He has also been the head coach at Montgomery Academy and Robert E. Lee in his career.
“I really want to thank Bear Woods and Kyle Futral for this opportunity,” Brooks said. “I’m very excited to get started in a different capacity for sure. It’s totally different being the head coach than an assistant, but I was lucky enough that coach Dismukes allowed me to do a lot of stuff here. To his credit, I feel like he let me be a head coach at times. But I’m very excited and I hope to keep it rolling just like coach Dismukes did.”
Brooks has been a member of the Wetumpka community for roughly 15 years. He has coached in two different stints. His most recent stint started in 2018 when his oldest son, Ty, was in the seventh grade.
He served as an assistant throughout Ty’s entire high school baseball career, and is now taking over as head coach after Ty graduated and is now playing baseball at the University of South Alabama.
His two youngest kids, Candler and Lane, are a rising senior and junior at the high school.
“God is really good for giving me another chance,” Brooks said. “Wetumpka is a special place for me. I’ve been here a long time and all three of my kids have gone here. I’ve been with two different head baseball coaches and both were great men.”
Brooks also knows what it takes to win at Wetumpka.
He’s been part of Wetumpka baseball teams that have
“I know what it takes here,” Brooks said. “We aren’t going to roll out there and have the most talent in the world every game, but I know what we have to do. We have to be hard nosed and work hard. We have to get after it and play really good baseball. This is a special place.”
Wetumpka is coming off its best season in 32 years. The Indians went 24-16 overall, but reached the third round of the playoffs for the first time since 1992.
A handful of the team’s talent returns in 2025 including shortstop Mason Fuller, catcher Logan Fawcett, pitcher Asher Nobles and outfielder Aidon Peake among others.
The Indians will have a slight chance to the region with Percy Julian joining alongside Stanhope Elmore and Wetumpka.
“I think we have a chance to have a good baseball team,” Brooks said. “But baseball is funny. It doesn’t matter who the coach is or who the players are. You have to get hot at the right time and a lot of things have to fall your way once you get into the playoffs. Hopefully we can keep on moving forward. We just want to be playing well in April.”
