John Paul Head Has Been UAB’s Breakout Bat

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - May 3, 2026

John Paul Head doesn’t consider himself a natural home run hitter. The stats, at least this year’s stats, tell a different story for the UAB left fielder.

Head’s 16 home runs leads the American Conference and is tied for 27th best in the country heading into the weekend. He is the first player in UAB history to hit three home runs in a game twice, only the fourth to do it one time and the first to accomplish it since 1998. Head also had a pair of two home run games, giving him four multi-homer games this season. He is tied for sixth for most home runs in a season at UAB with 11 games remaining before the conference tournament. Head has a lot of work left to reach Shayne Carnes UAB record of 23 home runs set in 1998. But for Head to be on the top 10 list couldn’t have been predicted after a freshman season when he had one home run in 42 at-bats.

“I mean, in high school, I didn't hit a lot of home runs,” said Head, a standout baseball and football player at nearby Vestavia Hills High. “My senior year, I think, I only had three or four home runs. Of course, we didn't make the playoffs, so we played less games. But I never saw myself as a home run hitter. When I was younger, you're playing on those small fields, it's different.”

So how did he turn into a home run hitter over the course of an offseason?

It began in the summer while playing in a collegiate summer league – the Ohio Valley League – with the Full Count Rhythm out of Nashville. In his third game with the team, Head drove two balls out of the ballpark.

“I hadn't hit two home runs in a game since I was a little kid,” Head said. “I remember calling my dad, and I was like, ‘I don't know where this is coming from.’” Head said. “But he was like, ‘Well, don't let them be the only two home runs you hit.’ It just kept coming. At this time, I had gotten stronger and bigger. I've always thought of myself as my natural swing is lofty, so I get the ball in the air, but they just kept coming. I was like I guess I got some juice now.”

Head went on to finish with 12 home runs as his team won the championship. In the deciding game of the championship series, a 12-1 win over the Fulton Railroaders, Head had two home runs, including a grand slam, and five RBIs. He was selected as the league’s MVP after leading the league in the regular season in batting average (.450), RBIs (47), hits (58), on-base percentage (.574), slugging percentage (.736) and doubles (11).

As far as the power surge is concerned, there is a back story.

Head and Landon Beaver are UAB baseball teammates and roommates. Beaver spent most of the summer in Virginia playing for the Strasburg Express in the Valley Baseball League. Before they left, they made a bet that the one with the most summer home runs gets the master bedroom for the 2025-26 school year.

That’s pretty good motivation to swing for the fences.

Beaver finished the summer with 15 home runs to win the bet.

“I may have wasted all my home runs this summer, so I ended up getting the master,” said Beaver, who has five home runs for the Blazers this season while hitting .312 with a team-best 13 doubles. “But me and him, we talk about ball every day. We talk about what we can get done together for this program. I knew he was going to have a good year. I could just tell. He puts the work in, he gets after it, and he deserves everything that's coming to him right now.”

Home runs are just part of what Head brings to this team this season. He is currently second on the team with a .317 batting average. He leads the team in RBIs (45), total bases (111) and slugging percentage (.677), second or tied for second in hits (52), triples (1) and walks (36) and third or tied for third in runs (41), and doubles (9). A year ago, Head hit .214 while trying to find a spot in the lineup.

“We were trying to figure out kind of where the best place was for him to play,” said Dunn, whose team will try to salvage a game in Sunday’s American Conference series finale at Rice. “When we brought him in, we tried to make him a catcher. That didn't work out. Then he went back to third, which is where he played mostly in high school, and we just felt like we had better options there. When we started the outfield transition, it just took him a lot of time.”

That’s where the summer in Nashville helped once again.

“You would play six games a week, so I had the same routine every day,” Head said. “I'd wake up, I'd go work out, I'd go hit a little bit and then I'd just go play. I figured out that that was my routine. I did get a lot more comfortable in the outfield, got a lot more comfortable with the play. It was a big summer for me.”

He came home facing big expectations from his coach.

“Oh, no doubt, man,” Dunn said. “I mean, I told anybody that would listen, with him and Beaver, we really need those two guys to carry us offensively. Those are the two guys we were counting on this year coming back and kind of hitting in the middle of the order. You know, we rolled the dice a little bit, trusting guys that didn't play a ton last year to be middle-of-the-order guys this year. But, we just felt like we were better off trying to help them get better and giving them opportunity versus trying to go out and bring somebody in that was unproven.”

Obviously, it’s a decision that continues to pay off.