Storied South Bend Clay baseball program nearing the end of the line

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

A scholastic era is nearing an end.

South Bend Community Schools’ last day for students is to be May 31 and with it will be the last-ever classroom day for Clay High School, which the school board voted in April 2023 to close at the end of 2023-24. The school was established in 1939.

The curtain is also coming down on the storied history of Colonials baseball, the one with more than 1,000 all-time wins, 12 sectional titles, four regional crowns, one semistate trophy and one state championship.

Clay, where Al Hartman in athletic director, has a handful of regular-season games remaining with the Jim Reinebold Classic May 18 leading into the IHSAA Class 3A sectional at Mishawaka Marian. The Colonials drew the host Knights in the first game on May 22. 

Clay was to be host, but because of the situation the sectional was moved to Marian though Clay is to host regional games on June 1.

Joel Reinebold, the fourth of Hall of Famer Jim and wife Evelyn Reinebold’s five children, played for his father, coached with him and witnessed the Colonials moving from Clay Park to what became Jim Reinebold Field. The baseball sleeve that hangs on the fence during games dates back to that era.

Joel has been Clay’s head coach since 2014.

“It’ll be hard to take that uniform off for the last time whenever that is,” says Reinebold, a 1979 Clay graduate. “I grew up in that program. I spent so many hours in the stands and the dugout.

“I was there for the good games and the tough losses. There’s a lot of emotional attachment.”

That there would be a 2024 season at all was an uncertainty. The Colonials eventually did take the field for a limited schedule. At this writing, the team is 3-3.

“We had no business trying to compete in the (Northern Indiana Conference,” says Reinebold. “Three of our guys have played very little baseball before. 

“We’re trying to save the dignity of the program and gain the confidence of the kids.”

Day-to-day, Clay has been coached by Reinebold and Tony Cruz. Dan Kasper and Nate Meadimber have also helped at times with a group that has peaked at 14 — seniors Jeremy Cleveland, Noah Fernandez and Tommy Sconiers, juniors Dominic Damp, Nolan Dool, Jose Duque, Tyler Gibson, Misael Gonzalez, Cole Hunt, Carson Meadimber, Yazael Sarmiento and Liam Wolf and freshmen Jean Barnes and Noah Camarillo. “There’s not a lot of kids playing in a lot of programs,” says Reinebold. “It hits you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The coach says some of his non-seniors are planning to attend John Adams or Riley next year and a couple are moving out of town.

“It’s very hard to play under those conditions and coach under those conditions,” says Reinebold.

The field has been home in recent summers to travel ball tournaments and the South Bend American Legion Post 151 and the plan is for that Cruz-led team to play there again this year. 

What happens after that is not yet known.

“I’ll maintain it like I always do until I hear otherwise,” says Reinebold. “It’s certainly too nice of a field to go to waste.”

For 25 years, Reinebold was the head groundskeeper at what is now Four Winds Field in South Bend. He has built or renovated at least 30 diamonds from scratch and has helped with countless others.

Reinebold, who turns 64 in August, is sorting out his own future.

“I know I still want to coach,” says Reinebold, who recently began a day job with Holladay Properties in South Bend. “I’ve had some offers, but I haven’t decided on anything yet.

“I know I still enjoy practice. I probably enjoy practice as much as the game. I enjoy being around the kids. The kids I have this year are super. They give everything they’ve got.”

Before coming back to Clay, Reinebold was head coach at Bremen High School for two seasons and six at Adams. He would prefer to be a head coach at his next stop.

Jamaica is a place Reinebold has visited multiple times and some of those has been with non-profit organization Rounding Third, donating baseball equipment and teaching the game to youngsters on “The Rock.” He’s even gone to Curacao.

He is planning a return to Jamaica in November for a vacation/baseball visit. 

“I’ve got all kinds of baseballs and gloves to go down there,” says Reinebold. “I can’t take helmets and bats.”

In most years for the last 30, the Jim Reinebold Fall Baseball Camp and Instructional League has been a staple in South Bend. 

“Right now camp is up in the air,” says Reinebold. “We canceled it last year because I had heart issues. I was thinking about tinkering with it and changing it up a little bit.”

Jim Reinebold, who helped found the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association and coached many years in professional baseball with the South Bend White Sox/Silver Hawks after leaving the Purple & Gold at the end of the 1988 season, started the camp with some top-notch coaches to do the instruction. 

Many of those coaches have retired or moved on. The challenge is to find young coaches who will give of their time and talent.

Clay High School (enrollment around 550), which is the Fine Arts school in the SBCSC magnet program, is on Darden Road on the north side of South Bend. Jim Reinebold Field is a few blocks away on Lily Road.

Joel Reinebold.

Joel Reinebold.

Jim Reinebold Field.

Jim Reinebold Field.

South Bend Clay gets 1,000th win in baseball program history.

South Bend Clay High School’s 2021 baseball team.

South Bend Clay High School’s 2022 baseball team.

Clay at the beach.

South Bend Clay baseball lineup cards.

Here come the Colonials.

Beasley guides Career Academy South Bend baseball

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Phil Beasley faces some challenges as head baseball coach at Career Academy South Bend (Ind.).

As he goes into his fourth season leading the program at the tuition-free public charter school serving grades 6-12, Beasley is met with issues like getting enough players and retaining those.

The school, which opened in August 2011 with grades 7-9 before expanding, presented its first baseball team in 2014. The Trailblazers became eligible for IHSAA tournament play in 2017 — the year before Beasley became head coach.

“The first year we went into most games with 10 players,” says Beasley. “The second year, it was 13 or 14. Last year, we were in good shape with decent numbers then we did not play (because of the COVID-19 pandemic).”

As the 2021 slate approaches, Beasley has been getting a handful out for winter conditioning. He hopes that number will go up at the end of basketball season and when more students begin coming for in-person instruction.

One of the reasons participation is down is because some students take all their classes online and don’t appear at the campus on the northwest side of South Bend just below the Indiana Toll Road. The school has enrollees from all over the area.

“I don’t get to interact with those kids and that’s where a lot of the recruitment comes from,” says Beasley. “Losing the baseball season really hurt because (students and staff) are not talking about it.

“If doesn’t matter if you never played before. Come out and we’ll have some fun. I’m not going to force a kid to come out and do it.”

These novices — some who have never played or have not been on a diamond since Little League — face a varsity high school schedule with experienced opponents. Some of those will go on to play college baseball.

“Retention is hard,” says Beasley. “Many of them do not come back the next year. 

“That’s our biggest hurdle.”

There is currently no feeder system for CASB baseball, though Beasley is hoping to develop a middle school team in the next couple years. Career Academy has a second South Bend campus — Success Academy — which serves grades K-5.

Career Academy South Bend (enrollment around 360) is a member of the new Hoosier Plains Conference (with Argos, Bethany Christian, Elkhart Christian, Lakeland Christian Academy and Trinity Greenlawn). LCA and Trinity Greenlawn do not currently field baseball teams.

Beasley, who is assisted by Dustin Saunders and Josh King, says plans call for conference games to be played on Fridays and Saturdays.

The Trailblazers practice and play at Boland Park, a public facility about three miles from the school.

Career Academy South Bend is part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping with Argos, Culver Community, LaCrosse, Oregon-Davis, South Central (Union Mills) and Triton. The Trailblazers have won not won a sectional title. SBCA participated in three IHSAA tournaments — 2017 at the LaVille Sectional and 2018 and 2019 at the South Bend Career Academy Sectional (played at South Bend Clay).

Non-conference and non-sectional opponents on the 2021 schedule include Culver Academies, Fremont, Lakewood Park Christian, Mishawaka, North Miami, South Bend Riley, South Bend Washington, Victory Christian Academy and Westville.

Beasley is a math teacher. This year he leads Algebra and Algebra Lab classes.

He grew up in North Liberty, Ind., and played baseball at John Glenn High School in Walkerton, Ind., graduating in 2005. Beasley’s freshmen year was John Nadolny’s first at Falcons head coach.

“He was the coach who taught me the most about all aspects of the game as opposed to just the physical part,” says Beasley. “He had those instincts during the game. Being around baseball his whole life, he did what his gut told him to do and it’s worked out for him.”

Beasley credits “Nud” for teaching him how to look at baseball’s mental side.

“How far I can hit the ball or how hard I can throw is not always the most-important part,” says Beasley.

At Ball State University in Muncie, Beasley played four years of club baseball, serving as president his last two years.

The club played intrasquad games in the fall and then a National Club Baseball Association schedule in the spring. Ball State played in the Great Lakes South Conference with club teams from Indiana University, University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and SIU-Edwardsville.

The student-run club was responsible for securing its own practice time and space — in the winter that meant 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. when the varsity teams weren’t using any of the BSU gyms.

Working with Muncie Parks & Recreation, the club played at Francis Lafferty Park. As president, Beasley had to lead fundraising efforts and put together a proposal to get financial help from the university. There was also making out the roster and other administrative duties that many don’t associate with coaching.

Before coaching at Career Academy South Bend, Beasley served as an assistant and junior varsity coach at South Bend Clay (2012-17). He got to work with baseball veterans like Colonials head coach Joel Reinebold and assistants Bill Schell, John Kehoe and Dan Kasper.

“It was very informative,” says Beasley. “(Reinebold) always had something that players could do to get better. I learned a lot from him.”

Beasley also learned how to run a team and craft a schedule.

This image was used while seeking potential baseball players at South Bend (Ind.) Career Academy.

Phil Beasley is a math teacher and head baseball coach at South Bend (Ind.) Career Academy. His first season in charge of the Trailblazers was 2018. His is a graduate of John Glenn High School in Walkerton, Ind. He played club baseball at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.