After capping their undefeated season with the Class 2 State Baseball Championship, the Iberia High School Rangers were almost home. Coach and bus driver Tim Vinson turned the corner into town and there was his other team: The volunteer firefighters of the Iberia Rural Fire Protection District, truck lights flashing, sirens blaring in celebration.
Vinson has been Iberia’s head baseball coach for 14 years and a volunteer firefighter for about seven. The 2024 Frisco League Coach of the Year sees plenty of similarities between the two.
Both teams require frequent training and drills that make the right response to a myriad of possible situations nearly automatic, Vinson, 38, said. “Although the stakes are much higher at a fire than on the baseball field, the pressure you feel can be compared – and you need to learn to respond under pressure, and stay cool under pressure.”
Neither baseball nor firefighting require every team member to do every job. “Each person has a role they play. On the baseball field, not everybody is a pitcher or a catcher. On a fire scene, not everybody runs the pump or carries the hose into the fire. Every role is important and must be filled for the team to be successful.”
Each baseball game, like each fire call, is a chance to use every skill learned, he said, and an opportunity to gain experience, evaluate what went smoothly and what could have gone better, and build a stronger team.
And there’s always more to learn.
At the fire department, Vinson is not in a leadership role. “It helps me be a better coach to see things from that perspective, where I am always watching other firefighters and trying to learn from them,” he said.
Firefighting has also reminded him that trying something new can be intimidating, but training and team support turn self-doubt into confidence.
Seven years ago, “I saw an ad that Iberia Fire needed volunteers. It was something I had always wanted to do, but I was hesitant,” Vinson remembers. “I kept thinking there were other people out there who would be better than me. I didn’t think I would be somebody they would want. But they needed help, and so I went to the meeting.”
Through the fire department’s free training and from seasoned firefighters, Vinson gained the skills he needed to respond with confidence. This is something he wants others who have thought about volunteering to know: “They’re not going to throw you into anything until you’re comfortable,” he said. “And the next thing you know, you’re teaching the people who join the department after you what you’ve learned.”
Another reason people may not volunteer is a concern that they don’t have enough time. With coaching, teaching elementary physical education, and a busy family life with wife Kristina, daughter Coralynn, 7, and son Ryder, 5, Vinson can’t make every fire call, either. “The thought that somebody, someday is going to need me to step in and help out in their most vulnerable moments keeps me going when I can go,” he said.
Vinson is proud to be part of both the Rangers baseball team and the team of men and women who volunteer to protect their neighbors’ lives and property. He’ll never forget the joy of the 2024 season and the May night he drove his victorious ball players home and they sang “We are the Champions” and shouted back to their friends, families and neighbors lining the streets through the open bus windows. He’ll never forget that the members of his Iberia Rural Fire Protection District firefighting team led the way, supporting him and his players in the brightest and loudest way they could.
“And now, some of the kids that I’ve coached are starting to join the fire department,” he said.
To learn more or join the Iberia Rural Fire Protection District as a volunteer firefighter, non-emergency volunteer, or cadet firefighter (ages 13-17), visit iberiafire.org.