Wichman raises interest, expectations for Scottsburg Warriors

By STEVE KRAH
http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Brian Wichman has helped Scottsburg (Ind.) High School to many baseball successes since taking over the Warriors program.
When he came on board prior to the 2018 season, Scottsburg had not had not posted a record above .500 since 2004 and high school players were not involved in travel ball in the summer.
“We had to get back to the basics and get people interested in ball,” says Wichman. “I’ve tried to really push kids toward travel ball.”
Wichman’s Warriors went 15-13 in 2018, regressed to 9-19 in 2019 with a young squad (there were only two seniors and one junior), missed the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic then sported 19-10 mark in 2021 bolstered by the senior and sophomore classes.
There were 22 players to take on varsity and junior varsity schedules.
Scottsburg (enrollment around 770) is a member of the Mid-Southern Conference (with Austin, Brownstown Central, Charlestown, Clarksville, Corydon Central, Eastern of Pekin, North Harrison, Salem and Silver Creek).
In 2021, the Warriors were part of an IHSAA Class 3A sectional grouping with Brownstown Central, Charlestown, Corydon Central, Madison Consolidated, North Harrison, Salem and Silver Creek (the 2021 host). Scottsburg has won six sectional crowns — the last in 1996.
Scottsburg plays on Warrior Field, an on-campus facility that was laser-graded four years ago and has Bermuda grass.
“It looks really good, especially when we get to May,” says Wichman.
Feeder systems include Scott County Youth League (T-ball through 12U) and a middle school team of seventh and eighth graders that play schools in the MSC and Hoosier Hills Conference.
Wichman, who teaches engineering and welding classes and is involved in Project Lead The Way at Scottsburg, has extensive coaching experiences at the high school and travel ball levels.
His first season was as a Columbus (Ind.) East High School assistant in 1995 while he was doing his student teaching. Wichman graduated from Ball State University with an Industrial Technology degree. He played baseball for one season (1991) at Indiana University Southeast before transferring to BSU.
Wichman served as an assistant at North Harrison High School in Ramsey, Ind., in 1996 and 1997 and helped at Columbus (Ind.) North High School in 2007.
From 2004-14, he ran the Indiana Blazers travel organization and coached for the Indiana Prospects in 2015 and 2016.
Brian and wife Cathy have four sons and all played for the Blazers and other travel teams, including the Indiana Prospects, Cincinnati Flames
Evansville Razorbacks and Indiana Bulls, as well as at Columbus East.
Left-handed pitcher Brian “B.T.” Wichman (Columbus East Class of 2013) was at Murray State University, Gulf Coast Community College and the University of Indianapolis. Peyton Gray, a 2014 Columbus East graduate now in the Kansas City Royals organization, was a high school and GCCC teammate.
Defensive back/catcher Christian Wichman (Columbus East Class of 2014) went to Thomas More University in Crestview Hills, Ky., for football and baseball then transferred to play baseball at the University of West Georgia (Carrollton, Ga.).
Defensive back Noah Wichman (Columbus East Class of 2016) played football at Taylor University in Upland, Ind.
Infielder Jonah Wichman (Columbus East Class of 2019) was on the baseball team at Butler University in Indianapolis in 2020 and 2021 and has transferred to St. Charles Community College (Cottleville, Mo.).
The past two summers, Brian Wichman has been an assistant in the College Summer League at Grand Park — in 2020 with head coach Joe Thatcher’s Park Rangers and in 2021 with head coach Kevin Christman’s Moon Shots.
A 1990 graduate of Seymour (Ind.) High School, Wichman played one varsity season for Owls coach Bob Bowman.

Brian Wichman (Eyes Of The Heart Photography)

The Wichman family (from left): Noah. B.T., Cathy, Brian, Christian and Jonah.

The Wichmans (from left): First row — Cathy and Brian; Second row — Noah, B.T., Jonah and Christian.

Cathy and Brian Wichman.

Brian and Cathy Wichman.

Cathy, B.T. and Brian Wichman.

Brian, Jonah and Cathy Wichman.

Advertisement

Kleber, Trinity Lutheran Cougars are aiming high in 2019

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

First-year head coach Ben Kleber and the Trinity Lutheran High School baseball team have set their sights high for the 2019 season.

“We expect to win the sectional,” says Kleber. “We want to be the first team in school history to win a regional game. That’s our goal.”

Trinity Lutheran (enrollment around 150) is an independent school located in Seymour, Ind. The school opened in 2002 and the first baseball season was 2003.

The Cougars’ schedule features Class 4A’s Bedford North Lawrence and Seymour, 3A’s Brown County, Brownstown Central, Charlestown, Salem and Scottsburg, 2A’s Austin, Henryville and Southwestern (Hanover) and 1A’s Christian Academy of Indiana, Crothersville, Greenwood Christian Academy, Hauser, Indianapolis Lutheran, Jac-Cen-Del, Oldenburg Academy, Rising Sun, Springs Valley and West Washington. The Trinity Lutheran Invitational on April 13 includes a round robin with 2A’s Eastern (Pekin) and Switzerland County and 4A’s Jennings County.

Trinity schedules bigger schools to get ready for the IHSAA tournament series.

The Cougars are part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping with Crothersville, Orleans and West Washington. Trinity has won five sectional championships — the last two in 2016 and 2017.

Kleber, a graduate of Seymour High School (2007) and Hanover (Ind.) College (2011), was a varsity assistant and junior varsity coach the past two seasons to head coach Brandon Tormoehlen at Brownstown Central.

“I learned a lot about hitting and catching drills from Coach T,” says Kleber of Tormoehlen. “He’s just a wealth of knowledge when it comes to offense. He definitely valued your option on things.

“I like his philosophy on the game all together. He has his guys playing the game fast.”

The previous two springs before he was at Brownstown Central, Kleber was on the Trinity Lutheran varsity staff of head coach Bob Tabeling.

He spent the 2012 and 2013 campaigns coaching freshmen at Seymour with Jeremy Richey as head coach.

“Jeremy was great,” says Kleber of Richey. “I’ll be forever grateful for him giving me the start in coaching at the high school level.”

After playing at Seymour for coach Bob Bowman (the man who led the Owls to an IHSAA state championship in 1988), Kleber pitched at Hanover for Shayne Stock.

“(Bowman) was a baseball guy,” says Kleber. “He knew a lot about the game.”

Much of what Kleber uses at Trinity Lutheran — from pitching to base running to field maintenance — comes from his time at Hanover with Shayne Stock and Panthers bench coach Wayne Stock (an Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer).

“I loved playing for Coach (Shayne) Stock,” says Kleber. “He was

a hard-nosed guy who expected things done the right way. He expected the best of out you. He wanting your playing hard and playing smart.

“I learned so much from sitting and talking to (Wayne Stock).”

Kleber says he is transparent with his players and let’s them know their roles.

“They know what they need to do to get more playing time,” says Kleber. “I’m an open door. I make sure you’re ready to hear the truth and what’s expected of them and what they need to work on.

“Everybody is a piece to a puzzle. We want to be a family as much they want to be a team.”

Kleber’s desire is that his Cougars to be baseball-curious.

“I want our guys to ask questions,” says Kleber. “They have to be students of the game.

“You can’t just show up. You have to understand why.”

During the summers before his junior and senior years at Hanover, Kleber helped Todd Miller coach an Indiana Bulls travel team that included Drew Ellis (who played at Jeffersonville High School and the University of Louisville and is now in the Arizona Diamondbacks system).

Miller, a Franklin (Ind.) Community High Schoolg graduate who played baseball and football at Hanover, is now a baseball assistant at Tusculum University in Greeneville, Tenn.

The Cougars’ roster features 13 players. There is no junior varsity team this spring. Some of those are also on the track team. Four players who logged significant playing time in 2018 are back.

“We’re young,” says Kleber. “Wwe’re learning a lot of fundamentals and how to play the game the right way.

“We’re building for the sectional.”

Recent Trinity graduates who went on to college baseball are Sam Crick (Hanover) and Jacob Schult (Rose-Hulman).

Kleber is assisted by Tyler Reedy, a Seymour graduate whom Kleber coached before Reedy was in high school. Doug Nichols helps with statistics and field maintenance.

Trinity plays its home games on Alf Snyder Field, an on-campus facility built through a donation from Snyder’s family.

Two years ago, the infield went from grass with dirt cut-outs to a conventional infield.

This year, the mound was replaced and one of the batter’s boxes was re-done. There are new sponsors on the scoreboard. Sponsor banners line the outfield fence and a new batter’s eye is on the way. There is also plans to put fences in front of the dugouts.

Feeder schools from Jackson, Jennings and Bartholomew counties for Trinity Lutheran include Immanuel Lutheran (Seymour), Lutheran Central (Brownstown), St. Ambrose (Seymour), St. Bartholomew (Columbus), St. John’s Sauers (Seymour), St. Mary’s (North Vernon), St. Peter’s Lutheran (Columbus) and White Creek Lutheran (Columbus).

Kleber is a dispatcher for Rose Acre Farms, an egg producer in Seymour.

Ben and Katie Kleber were married in September 2015. They have a son — Braxton (2).

Braxton Kleber (2) is the son of Ben and Katie Kleber. Ben Kleber is head baseball coach at Trinity Lutheran High School in Seymour, Ind.

Katie and Ben Kleber were married in 2015. Ben Kleber is head baseball coach at Trinity Lutheran High School in Seymour, Ind.

 

‘Five absolutes’ foundation of Richey-led Seymour baseball

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Jeremy Richey was a football and baseball standout during his time as a student-athlete at Seymour High School.

As the Owls head baseball coach, he takes something of a football approach.

Richey, a 1999 SHS graduate who played both sports at Cumberland College (now the University of the Cumberlands) and baseball at Indiana University Southeast, keeps a large coaching staff busy with three squads (varsity, junior varsity and freshmen) on the school’s one baseball diamond — American Legion Field.

“They all have positions and they’re all working,” says Richey, who was an Indiana All-Star as a player and a football assistant for 12 seasons at his alma mater.

Playing for head coach Joe Goodman, Richey once held Seymour career and single-season school records for receptions.

Jeff Richey — Jeremy’s father — was a football coach for 35 years, including nine as head coach at Seymour.

Richey, who played on the prep diamond for head coach for Bob Bowman and then Terry Stigall at Cumberlands and Rick Parr at IUS, heads into his seventh baseball campaign in 2017-18 with D.J. Henkle, Elvis Hernandez and Tim Perry as varsity assistants, Dan Henkle, Billy Rayburn and Justin Richey as JV coaches and Geoff Revalee and Brad Thompson leading the freshmen.

Upon taking the job, Jeremy sat down with a few of his coaches and formed the Owls’ belief system.

“We have five absolutes,” says Richey. “That’s who we are as a program.

“There’s Hustle, Compete, Self Discipline, Be A Leader and Character,” says Richey. “If we take care of those five things, the wins will take care of themselves.”

Competing in the talent-laden Hoosier Hills Conference (along with Bedford North Lawrence, Columbus East, Floyd Central, Jeffersonville, Jennings County, Madison and New Albany) and an IHSAA Class 4A sectional group which includes Bedford North Lawrence, Floyd Central, Jeffersonville, Jennings County and New Albany, Seymour has been competitive, usually getting win totals in the teens.

“We’re very competitive in our conference,” says Richey. “But more importantly we’re creating good young men. We’ve sent 13 young men to college in six seasons. We’re winning in the classroom and the community and getting pretty good results on the field.”

Richey sent Zack Brown to the University of Kentucky and he is now pitching in the Milwaukee Brewers system. They don’t all have D-I talent, but plenty of determination.

“We have a lot of gritty kids that do things the right way,” says Richey.

In his first season on the job (2012), the Owls went 21-5 and lost to Jeffersonville in the conference tournament and sectional final without hitting a home run all season.

Richey and his staff do a lot of work with players on situational hitting. The Owls employ the hit-and-run, delayed steal and bunts for hits.

“We’re going to see really good pitching down here,” says Richey. “

“We stay on top of the ball and we make things happen.

“Small ball is big for us.”

Richey, an Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association district representative, was an assistant coach for the 2014 IHSBCA North/South All-Star Series in Richmond. New Castle’s Brad King headed South coaching combo which also include Richey, South Spencer’s Brian Kuester and Terre Haute North’s Shawn Turner (now head coach at Richmond).

His involvement with the IHSBCA also allowed Richey to work with Hobart head coach Bob Glover on a proposal to add a fifth class to IHSAA baseball. The idea stemmed from the big size difference between the biggest and smallest schools in 4A.

Richey said the idea likely did not gain traction since only one class would be impacted by the move.

While Seymour plays everyone in the Hoosier Hills Conference, a blind-draw conference tournament is the only thing that counts toward the HHC title. There is flexibility in the schedule that allows the Owls to decide whom they are going to play and when.

In recent years, American Legion Field (Post 89 is located in Seymour) has gotten a new scoreboard, more seating behind home plate and a brick wall and screen to replace the old-style fence backstop.

The baseball feeder system includes Seymour Youth League (about 450 boys ages 5 to 12), the Southern Indiana Middle School Development League (independent from the school and featuring seventh and eighth grade teams) and travel baseball organizations.

The Owls last won a sectional title in 1995. Seymour won a state championship with Bowman as head coach in 1988.

Richey, who teaches Economics and U.S. History at SHS, has been married 11 years to Seymour graduate Danielle. The couple have two children — Braden (10) and Brookyln (6).

Seymour High School head baseball coach Jeremy Richey poses with wife Danielle and daughter Brooklyn (6) and son  Braden (10).