Former Salisbury baseball players Nathan Foster and Scott van der Poel drove nine hours to West Point, N.Y., last Friday to watch ex-teammate Philip Tonseth graduate from the U.S. Military Academy.

Scott Maddox enjoyed hearing that story as much as he enjoyed any of his wins as the Hornets’ baseball coach.

“I always tried to make the Salisbury baseball program a family atmosphere,” Maddox said. “I encouraged players to build relationships, to support each other and to be there for each other.”

Maddox announced he would be retiring from teaching prior to this baseball season, but he wasn’t sure it would be his farewell tour as far as coaching. Now he knows he won’t be back in 2016.

“There comes a time when you know it’s time to go,” Maddox said. “It’s time for a younger person to take over — hopefully someone who will keep things going in the right direction.”

Maddox’s record is 172-204, although that includes a 20-67 record in his first four years when the program was down and the Hornets didn’t have a field to call their own.

“We were having to recruit our own players then to keep them from transferring,” Maddox said. “We’ve faced challenges that aren’t part of the equation at a lot of the other schools, but we’ve taught kids they could win and we competed.”

In the last 11 of Maddox’s 15 seasons at the helm, the Hornets were 152-137.

“When I first took the Salisbury job, another coach called and asked me if I was crazy, told me I could never win here,” Maddox said. “It’s not like we won a state championship, but we won in other ways. We always had GPAs over 3.0. A lot of our players (17) had college opportunities.”

Maddox thanks former head coaches Mike Herndon (Davie) and Bill Kesler (North Rowan) for teaching him a lot. He credits assistants Zach Snyder, Justin Morgan, Mike Bauk, Lynn Foster and Ryan Crowder for the hours they put it in with the program.

There were highlights on the field. Three of Maddox’s Hornets were Mark Norris Memorial Award winners as County Players of the Year. In 2013, Brian Bauk was the Hornets’ first Central Carolina Conference Player of the Year.

The Hornets won the 2006 CCC tournament and shared the regular-season championship in 2008 with Ledford and Central Davidson.

“We were never deep, but we made the playoffs eight of the last 10 years,” Maddox said.

Maddox called it a career Wednesday on a day when two of his players, Riley Myers and J.T. Austin, were signing to move on to college baseball.

“I butted heads a lot with coach Maddox my freshman year,” Myers said. “I didn’t like him at all, and I’m sure he was close to giving up on me. But he helped me mature, he helped me grow up, and he helped me become a much better person than I was. He’s been one of the most influential people in my life.”

Maddox would change a few things if he could. He’d like to see the return of an Easter tournament with all the county teams in it. He’d like to see the NCHSAA make some common-sense adjustments.

“There are some crazy rules,” Maddox said. “It’s like we’re working for them instead of them working for us.”

Maddox isn’t sure exactly how he’ll handle retirement, but he has a grandson in the Bahamas, and he’s determined not to miss watching him grow up.

Maddox’s final season was among his best. The Hornets won the eight-team Easter Tournament at CMC-NorthEast Stadium in Kannapolis and finished 17-9. Maddox’s 2006 and 2008 teams also won 17.

“It was a pretty good season, but there’s too much emphasis on what your record is,” Maddox said. “This program was always about building better people.”