Top Monster
- Updated: April 30, 2024
Former Wellborn, Jax State standout Brooks, now owner and CEO of Top Gun baseball, will serve as director of baseball operations for the Choccolocco Monsters.
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
OXFORD — Roby Brooks has raised a lot of baseball talent in Calhoun and surrounding counties. Now, he can sign it.
The former Wellborn High and Jacksonville State University standout and current owner and CEO of Top Gun Athletics will serve as director of baseball operations for the Choccolocco Monsters, the team announced today.
Returning to Oxford after playing their 2023 season in Columbus, Ga., the Monsters play in the wood-bat Sunbelt summer league, which is supported by Major League Baseball. College players who play their college seasons with aluminum bats play in summer leagues to showcase what they can do with wood bats.
Professional baseball uses wood bats.
Brooks, whose brother is former Oxford High School Wes Brooks, has had a hand in raising a lot of college players who played travel ball through Top Gun. That includes five players from Oxford’s 2023 Class 6A state championship team now playing their first college seasons.
Sunbelt League teams select players within a 30-mile radius of home plate. When the Monsters played their 2022 season in Oxford, their roster included area high school graduates Sean Smith (Piedmont), Brennan McCullough (Oxford), Dawson Winningham (Oxford), Jake Spivey (Oxford), Austin Goode (Alexandria) and Brant Deerman (Piedmont).
Among Roby Brooks’ duties, he will select the Monsters’ players and coaching staff.
He estimates the roughly 500 Top Gun alums have gone on to play college baseball, including roughly 80 current players. One caveat is the timing of the Monsters’ recently announced move back to Oxford, which came after the Atlanta Braves moved their Double-A team to Columbus, and his hiring, which became official Tuesday.
“I got hired so late in the game that a lot of these kids already have a place to play,” Roby Brooks said. “It’s gonna be tough on us this year, but we’re gonna give it our best.
“I would’ve liked to have been recruiting these guys about seven, eight, nine months ago, but it is what it is. We’re gonna get after it the best we can.”
Roby Brooks said reigning Alabama Mr. Baseball and 2023 Gatorade player of the year for Alabama Hayes Harrison, who came through Top Gun, “was the first guy I thought of.”
“I’ve got phone calls out to about 20 of those guys,” Roby Brooks said. “Again, probably about 18 of those guys have already lined up to play somewhere.
“They’re trying to see. We don’t want to burn no bridges. We don’t want anybody mad at us. A lot of those guys are going to New York and Connecticut and Michigan and Illinois and Virginia and all of those leagues. If they can get out, they’re going to play with me.”
As for a coach, it won’t be Wes Brooks, who has obligations as a member of USA Baseball’s 12U staff this summer. Roby Brooks has an offer out to a “big name,” he said, but didn’t feel comfortable naming that coach at this time.
Brooks played college baseball at Jax State under Rudy Abbott from 1993-96. He was named first-team all-conference. For the 1997 season, he set a team record for doubles in a season with 26 while hitting .401 with 59 RBIs and a 1.211 OPS.
After a stint in the Frontier League with the Waterbury (Conn.) Spirit, he turned to player development. Top Gun provides individualized training and skill refinement.
Roby Brooks sees his involvement with the Monsters as a win-win for the team and Top Gun.
“That was one of the reasons why I wanted to take this job,” he said. “It’s going to open up a whole other avenue for the Top Gun guys with networks and relationships through the Monsters and getting our guys another opportunity.
“A college coach will call me and ask me about some of his players. At the same time, I can tell him about some of our Top Gun players.”
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