By STEVE KRAH
Ryan Wheeler has been part of an exceptional era in Silver Creek High School baseball.
After pitching for and then coaching with Rick Parr at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany and spending five seasons as head coach at Christian Academy of Indiana — also in New Albany — Wheeler joined Joe Decker’s Dragons coaching staff in 2010.
“Coach Decker allowed me to have an influence with compete control of pitching,” says Wheeler, helped Silver Creek win 12 sectionals, four regionals, two semistates, a state runner-up finish (2018) and a state championship (2023).
Decker, who won 634 games in a 30-year career, made it known he planned to retire at the end of the 2023 season. Wheeler applied and was told he would be head coach at the school in Sellersburg, Ind., as the season was ending.
“I’ve always been a relationship kind of a coach,” says Wheeler. “My approach has always been I have four years to have an impact in their life. Along the way I really hope they’re successful in baseball and have a lot of really good life-learning experiences.
“As a head coach I don’t see that role changing a whole lot.”
What about the Dragons between the white lines?
“As a program we’re going to be extremely aggressive — a lot of the them attributes Coach Decker taught,” says Wheeler. “We’ll pressure on with the bunt game and controlling the counts.
“We’ll have very competitive at-bats (taking advantage of a hitter’s count) and be very competitive in pitching.”
Wheeler wants his hurlers throwing strikes and avoiding free passes.
Continuity continues with Wheeler’s assistants. Ritchie Ware, Jacob Barnett, J.D. Ehringer, Brent Falcone and Noah Bays are all also returnees.
“Ritchie Ware is my co-head coach to be honest with you,” says Ware. “We run a lot of things through each other. We always have.
“He’s a major role model for me.”
Ware was an assistant at IU Southeast when Wheeler was a Grenadier.
Barnett, Ehringer and Bays all played for Wheeler and Ware at Silver Creek.
“They know the emotion of the program,” says Wheeler. “They’ve been through it.”
Falcone, who hails from Canada and played at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tenn., is Ware’s brother-in-law.
Wheeler played for Parr. American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer and former Marion College (now Indiana Wesleyan University), Trevecca Nazarene and Lee University (Cleveland, Tenn.) field boss David Altopp coached Parr, Ware and Falcone.
“It’s a really cool dynamic on how that all works,” says Wheeler.
Silver Creek (enrollment around 950) is a member of the Mid-Southern Conference (with Austin, Brownstown Central, Charlestown, Corydon Central, Eastern of Pekin, North Harrison, Salem and Scottsburg).
The Dragons are part of an IHSAA Class 3A sectional grouping in 2024 with Charlestown, Corydon Central, Madison Consolidated, North Harrison, Salem and Scottsburg. Silver Creek has won 12 sectional titles. Not counting 2020 when the season was called off because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Dragons have won six straight sectionals through 2023.
After playing all its games away from campus in 2023, Silver Creek has a new athletic facility — Hunter Station Pizza Stadium — which has turf fields for baseball, softball, soccer and football.
“It’s going to be really special,” says Wheeler.
The baseball field (which traded locations with the football field) has not been completely released to the team yet. That means player evaluation during the IHSAA Limited Contact Period period which ends this week has been somewhat restricted.
“Kids adapt,” says Wheeler. “I love the young kids coming into the program and the existing kids that are coming back and their leadership.”
Developing players for the high school program are Silver Creek Middle School (seventh and eighth grade teams play in the spring) and area travel organizations as well as Silver Creek Little League (which has had teams just miss qualifying for the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., the past few years).
“We’ve got to get involved with the Little League at lot more,” says Wheeler.
A 1992 graduate of Brownstown (Ind.) Central High School, Wheeler was with the independent pro Heartland League’s Dubois County Dragons in 1996 and 1997 — managed by R.C. Lichtenstein — after his IUS playing days. The 6-foot-1 right-hander started the all-star game staged at Huntingburg League Stadium in 1997.
Tyler Wheeler (Silver Creek Class of 2019) — the second of Ryan and Shellie Wheeler’s three children — played for the Dubois County Bombers — pitching a nine-inning complete game in the Ohio Valley League championship in 2021 and one game in 2022.
“Huntingburg, Indiana has been very good to both Tyler and myself,” says Ryan Wheeler. “We have been blessed to make many lifetime friends amongst the community.”
Oldest child Shelby (25) recently gave Ryan — an engineer for AT&T for the past 24 years — and Shellie their first grandchild. The couple was wed in 2000.
Hit with a second major arm injury a few weeks ago, 6-1 right-hander Tyler Wheeler (22) has ended his playing career at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville.
Cameron Wheeler (19) is a 2023 Silver Creek graduate who was a sophomore on an IHSAA Class 3A state championship basketball team in 2020-21. His last two years, the 6-5 athlete played volleyball in the spring and was all-state as a senior.
Tyler was a four-year volleyball manager who went through the same workouts and drills as the players as a member of the scout team.
“Volleyball really changed Tyler’s athleticism,” says Ryan Wheeler.
Silver Creek regularly sends players on to college baseball. From the Class of 2022, there is Dominic Decker (son of Joe Decker) at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Ala. There’s also 2023’s Jace Burton (Indiana State University) and Dane DeWees (Southeast Illinois University, a community college in Saline County, Ill.).
Tyler Kapust (Silver Creek Class of 2019) is also at USI.
Tommy Holman (Class of 2024) has committed to Spalding University in Louisville and the others in the senior class have also shown interest in playing college ball.
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