By STEVE KRAH
Shane Edwards is looking to pay if forward.
When he was a young high school baseball coach on the Indiana scene, veterans were willing to share their wisdom with him.
Now that he is seasoned — he is in his 15th season as head coach at Oak Hill in 2017 after serving on Chuck Brimbury’s Peru staff from 1999-2002 — Edwards is more than willing to pass along what he has learned as a member of the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association (he is currently past president).
“Everybody says Christmas is the greatest time of the year,” Edwards said during the annual IHSBCA State Clinic in Indianapolis. “But for baseball coaches, in my opinion, this is. Because you get to be around these guys.”
There were more than 400 coaches there sharing their love of the game.
“That’s the neatest thing about our association,” Edwards said of the giving nature of coaches in the sport. “There’s no fear in baseball. I’m successful and here’s what we do. Feel free to try it. There’s no secrets. Guys are always willing to help each other out. That’s great.
“I’m successful at Oak Hill not because of me, it’s because Terry Gobert of Jasper shared something with me or Don Sherman when he was still at Huntington. You name it. I talked to Coach (Ken) Schreiber at LaPorte as a young coach. I talked to Coach (Bill) Jones (at DeKalb). Nobody was afraid to share anything. That’s why I’m here. Hopefully, I can do the same for the next group of young guys.”
Edwards is a 1995 Norwell High School graduate. After playing for the Knights, he went on to the Mastodons of Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne.
In Brimbury, he met a disciple of Sherman. Both men encouraged Edwards to become involved in the IHSBCA and continue the legacy set by founders like Jones, the group’s long-time executive director who passed away Nov. 2, 2015.
“Bill is one of the reasons I’m at Oak Hill,” Edwards said. “He called and said I had an interview at Oak Hill. I didn’t even know I applied. Bill called them and said this is who you need to interview. I owe a lot to Bill. I owe a lot to our association. I feel I need to be a part of it.”
Current executive director Brian Abbott has taken Edwards under his wing and he has helped move the organization forward.
“I want the start of this association to be proud of where we are now,” Edwards said. “I’m excited to see young faces in programs that I know are going to teach them things the right way. I’m excited to see guys who are here and want to learn about the game and aren’t set in their ways.”
Edwards, a former teacher who is now in central administration, proudly wears the “old school” label.
That means concepts like discipline and accountability are important to him.
“We want to win baseball games along the way, but we don’t want to do that at the sacrifice of doing things the right way,” Edwards said. “That’s my goal every year, making sure the kids know how to play the game the right way but also be quality young men.”
Accountability used to be an automatic. Not anymore.
“When we were growing up, you respected your elders and you were accountable and that’s how it had to be,” Edwards said. “Now, it has to be taught.”
Edwards would like nothing better than to have 50 players show up at an alumni game because they were part of a program that they enjoyed — one that continues to do things the right way.
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