Purples name Eastridge as head coach

Published 11:45 am Monday, June 29, 2026

Jay Eastridge was named head baseball coach at Bowling Green High School on Monday. (Submitted)

Bowling Green High School named Jay Eastridge as the new baseball coach on Monday.

He replaces Nathan Isenberg, who was announced as the head coach at South Warren last week. Eastridge comes from Central Hardin, where he served as the associate head baseball coach. The LaRue County product previously served as an assistant at LaRue County as well as working with the University of Kentucky as a camp coach.

Eastridge said he is excited to take the reins at Bowling Green. The Purples won the Region 4 title this season, finishing 34-6.

“Bowling Green High School is a destination job for for every head coach in the state,” Eastridge said. “It’s a place where you can go compete and win year in year out. Came off a great season (and) have a lot of great players on there – graduate six I believe. Junior high, they had a really great season. JV had a great season, so we’ll figure out the tools that we have and it’s not a rebuild. It’s just a reload.”

While Eastridge comes from the Elizabethtown area, he has some ties to Bowling Green. He was a walk-on at WKU before eventually transferring to Lindsey Wilson. In his time at WKU, former Bowling Green coach Matt Myers was on the staff, while former Purples J.P. Jackson and Caleb Haynes were his teammates.

“I know it’s baseball rich in Bowling Green between Bowling Green East, the Little League program, WKU and Bowling Green,” Eastridge said. “It’s all good baseball. I’m super excited just to be in the realm of high-level baseball. As high as everybody’s expectations are for the program, they’re even higher for myself. I know with a good roster we can do great things and I’m shooting for the moon.”

Email newsletter signup

He also hopes to bring experience from working under former MLB pitcher Steve Delabar, Central Hardin’s head coach. The Bruins won District 17 this year, finishing 19-15.

“I mean to work under a former MLB All-Star, he showed me how to make the game fun – which sounds crazy coming from a big leaguer,” Eastridge said “He made it fun every single day. He let them have a big league approach. He let them take care of their own business. There was a lot of freedom there and he made them be professionals, so we had a really good season with a really young team. I think we started six freshmen in the postseason. People say we overachieve, but we just got the most out of what we had.”

While it is currently the KHSAA dead period, Eastridge said there is plenty of work to do.

“We’re gonna start building a staff today,” Eastridge said “Gonna be on the phone probably the rest of the day trying to find the right guys. I’ve been in touch with the UK coaching staff trying to see if they have any guys in the area they would recommend. Probably gonna talk to the WKU staff today, if not in the coming days and see what they recommend. Basically gonna hit the ground running. I don’t plan on slowing down.”

About Micheal Compton

I am a sports reporter and movie critic for the Bowling Green Daily News.

More by Micheal