Rossok establishing ways as Monrovia Bulldogs head coach

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Anthony Rossok is in his first year as a teacher and head baseball coach at Monrovia (Ind.) High School.

He splits the school day as a Special Education instructor between MHS and Monrovia Middle School.

On the diamond, Rossok has been leading up to 20 players during a IHSAA Limited Contact Period which goes from Aug. 28-Oct. 14.

About half of the participants are middle schoolers with many high schoolers involved with a football program that has produced 19 victories since 2021 with sectional and regional titles in 2022.

In 90-minute sessions, the Bulldogs have learned baseball fundamentals on Mondays with intrasquad games hitting off the Hack Attack pitching machine on Wednesdays.

All the while, Rossok is beginning to establish his way of doing things.

“I want to realize what Monrovia’s had and also build my own culture,” says Rossok. “That and the little things. The little things always matter.”

Arm care will also be a priority for Rossok.

“Growing up I didn’t have everything you do now,” says Rossok, who experienced shoulder injuries in high school and college. “I want to make sure I’m teaching everything correctly for my guys.

“I don’t want them to have to go through what I went through.”

Plans call for Monrovia to have two high school squads — varsity and junior varsity — in the spring.

Sharing an on-campus diamond are seventh and eighth grade squads.

Rossok is a 2016 graduate of Greencastle (Ind.) Senior High School.

He played four years of baseball, three of football and two of basketball for the Tiger Cubs. Troy Remsburg was the baseball coach.

A pitcher-only at Anderson (Ind.) University, Rossok encountered three head coaches — Dustin Glant, Drew Brantley and Matt Bair.

“I learned a lot from Matt Bair,” says Rossok. “It was the camaraderie that he had and the leadership that he took on. I’m still in-touch with him (and getting advice).

“I still look up to him.”

Doing his student teaching at Mooresville (Ind.) High School, Rossok was freshmen coach his first year and head junior varsity coach his second on the staff of Pioneers head coach Eric McGaha.

“I owe a lot of my coaching success to Eric McGaha being under his wing and seeing how he ran things,” says Rossok. “I look up to him and what he does.

“He helped me get to the position I’m in right now.”

After graduation and looking for a job closer to home, Rossok became a teacher as well as a baseball assistant to Chris Geeser at North Putnam High School in Roachdale, Ind.

This fall begins Rossok’s third season as a head coach with the Mooresville-based Indiana Braves travel organization. He started with 15U, led 16U this past season and is with 18U in 2023-24.

Rossok’s Monrovia assistants are Carl Gilbert, Skyler Dillon and Zach Jacobs. Auctioneer Gilbert was on the staff of former Bulldogs head coach Mark Rooker. Dillon and Jacobs are also first-year teachers at Monrovia Middle School.

Darius Compton (Monrovia Class of 2023) went on to join the baseball team at Indiana University Purdue University-Columbus. 

Brayton Belcher (Monrovia Class of 2024) has indicated an interest in playing college ball.

Monrovia (enrollment around 515) is a member of the Indiana Crossroads Conference (with Beech Grove, Cascade, Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter, Indianapolis Lutheran, Speedway, Scecina Memorial and Triton Central).

The Bulldogs are part of an IHSAA Class 3A sectional grouping in 2024 with Crawfordsville, Danville, Lebanon, Tri-West Hendricks and Western Boone. Monrovia has not yet to won a sectional title.

Not only did Rossok start a new teaching and coaching job this year, he became a husband. Anthony wed the former Delaney Jarrett Aug. 25 in Greencastle.

Anthony Rossok. (Monrovia High School Photo)

Monrovia High School.

Geeser puts passion over flash with North Putnam Cougars

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

Chris Geeser is entering his eighth season as a baseball coach at North Putnam High School in Roachdale, Ind.
The 2023 season will mark his fourth in charge of the Cougars program.
It’s is Geeser’s desire to put a “well-organized, hard-nose competitive team” on the field.
“We’re going to play the game hard,” says Geeser. “We’ll run out ground balls and give it our best effort.”
Geeser, 31, promotes sportsmanship and sees no room for showboating and bat flipping in baseball.
“I’d rather see the passion than the flashiness,” says Geeser.
A true-blue Chicago Cubs fan, Geeser counts former North Side pitcher Carlos Zambrano among his favorites.
“He was so passionate,” says Geeser of a player who won 125 games and socked 24 home runs in 11 seasons with the Cubs.
Geeser was born in Rockford, Ill., and moved to Martinsville, Ind., as a fourth grader.
He played four years of baseball for the Martinsville High School. Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Bill Tutterow led the Artesians in Geeser’s freshman year. Luke Moscrip was head coach the next season and Mike Swartzentruber (now a Lake Central) in 2009 and 2010.
“I was a big fan,” says Geeser of Swartzentruber. “We had a lot of talent my junior and senior year. He was very detailed and very intense.”
Geeser graduated from Indiana State University in 2015 and was hired to teach Business at North Putnam about a week before school began in 2015-16.
North Putnam (enrollment around 445) is a member of the Western Indiana Conference (with Class 2A Brown County, 2A Cloverdale, 3A Edgewood, 2A Greencastle, 3A Indian Creek, 3A Northview, 3A Owen Valley, 2A South Putnam, 2A Sullivan and 3A West Vigo).
Each WIC team meets one time during the season.
The Cougars are part of an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping in 2023 with Cloverdale, Greencastle, Parke Heritage, South Putnam and Southmont. North Putnam has won four sectional titles — the last in 2007.
With many North Putnam athletes involved in football, soccer or cross country, Geeser held IHSAA Limited Contact Period practices once a week in the fall. Those attending got a chance to throw and work on defensive basics and take plenty of batting practice.
“The skill that falls off faster than anything is hitting,” says Geeser. Since the winter Limited Contact Period began the Cougars are spending one day on bullpens and defensive drills and the other on hitting (in the cage or at stations around the gym).
“There’s not a whole lot of standing around at my practices,” says Geeser. “We’d like to get 100-150 swings.”
Sharing facilities with winter sports means coming in before school or going later in the evening.
North Putnam offers basketball, wrestling and swimming in the winter.
Winter workouts have had as many as 20 attendees, but the average is around 12.
Since Geeser became head coach the Cougars have fielded varsity and junior varsity teams and he expects the same in 2023. He guesses there might be 24 or 25 players in the program in the spring.
While there are no recent graduates in college baseball, Geeser sees that potential for junior right-handed pitcher Jaylen Windmiller, who struck out 27 and walked five in 22 2/3 innings for a 2022 team that went 13-13.
Geeser’s assistant coaches include returnees Cameron Brothers and Jackson Kendall and newcomer Anthony Rossock. Brothers and Kendall are North Putnam graduates and Rossock, who played at Anderson University, is a Greencastle alum. All three are North Putnam teachers.
North Putnam Middle School fields a team in the spring made up of seventh and eighth graders (and sometimes sixth graders).
North Putnam Youth Baseball League sponsors teams from T-ball to 12U. Geeser is actively involved with the organization.
A number of renovations to the school’s on-field diamond last summer, including rolling and re-building the infield, mound and home plate areas.
“I think our field’s pretty nice,” says Geeser. “We have really good lights.”
A Musco Lighting system can be controlled by a phone app.
Chris andy Lacey Geeser celebrated four years of marriage in the summer of 2022.

Chris Geeser. (North Putnam High School Photo)