Spencer wants Sheridan Blackhawks to be ‘all-conference’ teammates

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

Adam Spencer has learned that if you want to make a leader you let someone take the lead.
If you went them to be a valuable part of the group you show them how.
Spencer, the head baseball coach at Sheridan (Ind.) High School since 2017, defines his role.
“I’m a developer of men,” says Spencer, who is also a sixth grade math teacher and activities director at Sheridan Middle School (he earned an Elementary Education degree from Ball State University in 1998 and about a decade later at Masters in Education from Indiana Wesleyan University). “Everybody wants to win. I want to help make good fathers, good husbands, good friends.
“We talk about being an all-conference teammate. These are things we don’t have stats on.”
Through the years of coaching youth sports, Spencer has gotten to the point where players are asked to take charge in certain areas.
“Early on I never gave anybody leadership roles,” says Spencer. “Our guys run our drills (supervised by coaches). We put our upperclassmen in leadership roles.”
The baseball team is also involved in community service.
“We try to help others if we can,” says Spencer, whose players have raked leaves, pulled weeds and even helped the Sheridan Historical Society move across Main Street (S.R. 38).
Spencer is a 1993 Sheridan graduate. He did not play baseball or basketball in high school though he as a big fan of the sport. His father passed away when Adam was in elementary school and he worked during the winter and spring.
He did play football at Sheridan for Hall of Famer Larry “Bud” Wright and was on an IHSAA state championship team in 1992.
His love of baseball led Spencer to the Indianapolis Umpire Association and he officiated games for 17 years.
As his children got older (Adam and wife of 21 years, Lindsay, have four sons), he got involved in coaching at the middle school level.
At Lebanon (Ind.) High School, Spencer was on the football staffs of Lance Scheib and Kent Wright.
Years later, Matt Britt gave him the chance to coach middle school baseball at Sheridan. Some of those players were on the 2019 Blackhawks team that went 14-6 and lost to eventual Carroll (Flora) Regional champion Rossville in the Class 1A Sheridan Sectional championship.
Spencer was pitching coach for Larry Lipker for a season before taking over as head coach.
Sheridan (enrollment around 330) is a member of the Hoosier Heartland Conference (with Carroll of Flora, Clinton Central, Clinton Prairie, Delphi, Eastern of Greentown, Rossville, Taylor and Tri-Central).
In 2022, HHC teams will play one another on Tuesdays and Thursdays with some Saturday doubleheaders. In 2013, there will be 11 conference games included a seeded end-of-season tournament.
In 2021, the Blackhawks were part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping with Clinton Central, Frontier (the 2021 host), Rossville, South Newton and Tri-County. Sheridan has won its lone sectional title in 2004.
Sheridan plays its home games on Kent Harris Field (named after a former Blackhawks baseball coach).
In the fall, Blake Marschand-owned Marschand’s Athletic Field Service laser-graded the diamond and there was no Limited Contact Period activity. Spencer says there might have been five athletes involved that don’t play football or another fall sport at Sheridan. Spencer also coaches middle school football.
Through a partnership formed between Spencer and Michael Tucker, Sheridan hosts some Bullpen Tournaments games and has access to the turf diamonds at Grand Park in nearby Westfield, Ind.
Spencer’s assistant baseball coaches are Sheridan alum Adam Durr and Ryan Conley, whom he met from IUA.
Sam Crail (Class of 2017) played at Indiana University and then went to Saint Leo (Fla.) University.
Zach Mannies (Class of 2018) played at Ancilla College and then West Liberty (W.Va.) University.
Cameron Hovey (Class of 2021) is on the baseball and football teams at Manchester University.
Spencer sees college baseball potential in current seniors Gavin Reners and Silas DeVaney if they should pursue that path.
“(Reners and DeVaney) will be the leaders of our team (in 2022),” says Spencer.
Caine Spencer played for his father at the end of his middle school and high school baseball days and is now a 21-year-old junior at Ball State.
Adam and Lindsay’s other three boys — sophomore Camden (16), eighth grader Chance (14) and fifth grader Crew (11) – are also baseball players.
Feeders for Sheridan High School baseball are a Sheridan Babe Ruth League team of seventh and eighth graders that play in the late spring and into the summer plus young players in Sheridan Community Recreation Inc. (SCRI).
A middle school baseball camp introduces players to the ways and the language used at Sheridan High School.
“I’m invested in the program at every level,” says Spencer.

Adam Durr (left) and Adam Spencer.

Adam Spencer, Cole Macintosh and Camden Spencer.

Adam Spencer and Sheridan, Ind., youth baseball players.

Adam Spencer.

Shirley Delph (stripes) with the Spencers (clockwise) — Lindsay, Caine, Adam, Chance, Chase and Crew,

The Spencers (from left): Chance, Adam, Caine, Camden, Crew and Lindsay.

Adam Spencer surrounded by sons Caine and Chance, Camden and Crew.

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Dill grinding away with Taylor Titans baseball

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

Kris Dill has been coaching for close to two decades — the last three at his alma mater. In his first year in charge (2019), his Taylor High School baseball team lost to eventual state champion Alexandra-Monroe in the IHSAA Class 2A Eastern (Greentown) Sectional final.
A 1996 graduate of Taylor in Kokomo, Ind., Dill was a junior varsity assistant on a staff led by Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer George Phares in 2003. That summer, Phares got him hooked up with a Connie Mack League coaching job. Dill helped guide the Taylor Titans with Phares and then Jeremy Luna through 2010.
Later came the opportunity to be head JV softball coach at Kokomo High School for a year and head JV baseball coach for the Wildkats for four years before taking his current position at Taylor. When that happened he stepped down as director of 8U to 14U teams for the Indiana Nitro travel organization and is now a 14U Gold assistant.
Born and raised in Kokomo, Dill played at Taylor Southeast Little League, where Dwayne Richmond was one of his coaches. Dill later assisted him at Taylor High.
“I learned a ton from him,” says Dill of Richmond.
Dill attended Victory Christian Academy from kindergarten through freshmen year. VCA does not have a baseball team. He transferred to Taylor as a sophomore and became acquainted with Phares.
“He taught hard lessons,” says Dill, who was a catcher on the field and not such a disciplined student. “If you weren’t doing the right things in the classrooms he wasn’t going to let you get away with that. You’ve got to be accountable.
“I did not play college baseball. I was pretty immature.”
Dill entered the work force after high school. He got married, started a family and, eventually, decided to go to college.
“I was going into youth ministry,” says Dill, who left for Kentucky Christian University (Grayson, Ky.) at the end of July 2003.
On Labor Day weekend, Dill, wife Brenda and baby daughter Arianne were traveled back to Kokomo when tragedy struck.
“We were 15 minutes from home on U.S. 31 and a drunk driver headed in wrong direction hit us head-on,” says Dill of that Aug. 29. “It killed my wife instantly. I got 100 stitches. My daughter did not have a scratch.”
Brenda Sue Dill was 22.
Kris Dill stayed in Kentucky for the next two years then moved back to his hometown. He eventually earned a degree from Indiana University Kokomo (2013) and got re-married. He and wife Amy have a son named Kade.
Arianne Dill played soccer at nearby Western High School as a freshman and sophomore. She ran cross country and track and Taylor and graduated in 2021. Baseball-playing Kade Dill is a Taylor eighth grader.
Kris, who turns 44 in November, teaches general and Advanced College Placement U.S. History at Taylor.
As baseball coach, Dill leads a program at a school with an enrollment around 360 and not many with the resources to play travel ball. They often arrive in high school lacking in the fundamentals and diamond experience.
“(In 2021-22) we’re going to be in a little better spot,” says Dill. “We got in a summer of Babe Ruth Baseball (the COVID-19 pandemic took away high school and summer action in 2020). We got to play and learn how to play.
“We will be able to hit the ground running with varsity players. The JV will get some time to perfect those fundamentals and hone in on them. Our Baseball I.Q. is going to be in a lot better place.
“Our kids didn’t play for two years essentially. But we don’t talk about those things. We talk about what we’re going to do to get better.”
While slowed down when Dill tested positive and was out for two weeks, Taylor is easing into IHSAA Limited Contact Period activities (the current window is Aug. 30-Oct. 16).
Dill’s coaching staff features Tyler Hodson, Tim Douglas and B.J. Pemberton with the varsity and head coach Josiah Bolton and assistant Caden Sullivan with the JV.
Taylor plays on George Phares Field. The Titans are a member of the Hoosier Heartland Conference (with baseball members Carroll of Flora, Clinton Central, Clinton Prairie, Eastern of Greentown, Rossville, Sheridan and Tri-Central).
In 2021, Taylor was part of an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping with Blackford, Eastbrook, Eastern (Greentown), Madison-Grant and Tipton. The Titans have won seven sectional titles — the last in 2015.

Former player Colby Devenport is on the reserve squad at Indiana Tech.
Taylor brought back middle school baseball in 2021, which will also help at the high school level. As part of the feeder system, travel teams are being added at Taylor Southeast.
“We’re headed in the right direction,” says Dill. “It’s a slow-moving build. We’re going to grind away.”
The 8U level is going to Coach Pitch so they can learn how to see the ball out of the pitcher’s hand.
“We have resources,” says Dill. “It’s about using them correctly.”

Kris Dill, Michael Pemberton (8) and B.J. Pemberton (4).

The Dills (from left): Kade, Arianne, Amy and Kris.

Relationships driving force for Carroll Cougars’ Parkhurst

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

For Camden Parkhurst, it’s not just about the baseball. It’s about the people.

“It’s the relationships with kids,” says Parkhurst, the head coach at Carroll Junior-Senior High School in Flora, Ind. “That’s why I do this.”

Parkhurst is in he third year since coming back to lead the program he helmed 2013-15 (Kerry Yoder was head coach in 2012). He was Carroll’s athletic director 2011-19 then became business manager for Carroll Consolidated School Corporation.

A 2002 graduate of Clinton Central Junior-Senior High School in Michigantown, Ind., where he played two years for Dan Swafford and two for Rick Helbie, Parkhurst began coaching while attending Indiana State University, where he graduated as Physical Education/Health major in 2007. 

“I had a real good relationship with (Swafford and Helbie),” says Parkhurst. “I was a catcher. I learned a lot from both of them. You pick up a lot of things you don’t realize.

“I still call Coach Helbie for advice about handling players and parents. I have a lot of respect for both of them.”

Student teaching for Parkhurst was done at Western High School in Russiaville with Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Ty Calloway.

Parkhurst was on Helbie’s Clinton Central staff then an assistant at Cowan (Ind.) Junior-Senior High School before serving as Blackhawks head coach for four seasons (2008-11).

At 23, Parkhurst was physical education teacher and the head coach for an IHSAA Class 1A state runner-up team.

“I’m still close with kids from Cowan,” says Parkhurst. “I get invited to their weddings.

“They say you can have an impact on the lives of kids, but you don’t realize the impact they have on yours.”

Parkhurst has particularly enjoyed working with the past couple Carroll teams.

“It’s been a great experience,” says Parkhurst, who is assisted in 2021 by former Carroll and Saint Joseph’s College player Seth Eldridge, Chris Seward (on his Cougar staff in both stints), Dan Butcher, Paul Redmon and Dave Mann.

The 2021 Carroll Cougars have 21 players to fill a varsity and junior varsity schedule. Parkhurst says some players will float between the two teams.

While no current players have made college baseball commits, junior Will Eldridge is among those being recruited. 

Feeding the high school program is Flora Youth Baseball (T-ball through junior high).

Carroll plays its home games on-campus on a lighted diamond that recently got new dugouts and backstop and, a few years ago, an overhauled infield and irrigation system. The school has been 1A regional host for the last several years.

Serving mainly students from Flora and Burlington, Carroll (enrollment around 330) is a member of the Hoosier Heartland Conference (with Clinton Central, Clinton Prairie, Eastern of Greentown, Rossville, Sheridan, Taylor and Tri-Central).

The Cougars are part of an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping with Lewis Cass, Manchester, Rochester, Wabash (the 2021 host) and Whitko. Carroll has won six sectional titles — the last in 2015.

Besides conference and sectional foes, Carroll’s regular-season schedule includes games with Delphi, Faith Christian, Frontier, Maconaquah, North Miami, North White, South Newton, Tri-County, West Central, West Lafayette and Winamac.

Camden and Robin Parkhurst have been married since October 2007. The couple have two children — Kylie (8) and Cooper (4). 

Cooper joined dad at a recent Carroll practice.

“He enjoyed every minute of it,” says Parkhurst.

Camden Parkhurst

Giving back to community important to Arnold, Tri-Central Trojans

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Already established on the coaching scene at Tri-Central Middle/High School in Sharpsville, Ind., Shane Arnold has added head baseball coach to his list of roles and he has goals for that group of Trojans.

“Our focus is to get back to the basics, be better fundamentally and get the numbers up,” says Arnold. “We want to make sure the kids are giving back to the community and be visible in the youth leagues.”

Arnold is in his second season as head football coach at Tri-Central after 14 years as a TC gridiron assistant. He spent the past two springs as the school’s head softball coach and had held that position at Taylor High School in Kokomo. He has been involved in youth baseball for decades.

A year ago, Tri-Central had 11 high school baseball players. The year before that, it was nine. Arnold says he would like to have enough players to field a varsity and junior varsity squad.

With Arnold coaching football, there was no Limited Contact practice at Tri-Central this fall, but the Trojans will be working in the winter to develop arms and and develop other skills.

“We’ll also bring in the youth and have high school kids work with them,” says Arnold. “It’s important for the high school kids to give back and be great role models and mentors.”

Arnold was involved when leaders of the Tri-Central Youth Baseball League decided a few years ago to start playing area schools in age division competition.

“We knew that in the future, the high school team will reap the benefits,” says Arnold. “We’re seeing better baseball and having to play at a higher level.”

Tri-Central (enrollment around 250) is a member of the Hoosier Heartland Conference (with Carroll of Flora, Clinton Central, Clinton Prairie, Delphi Community, Eastern of Greentown, Rossville, Sheridan and Taylor).

In recent seasons, HHC teams have played each other one time. In 2019, TC’s non-conference opponents were Elwood, Faith Christian, Northfield, Northwestern, Oak Hill and Tipton.

The Tipton County-based Trojans are part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping with Anderson Preparatory Academy, Cowan, Daleville, Liberty Christian, Southern Wells and Wes-Del. Tri-Central has won three sectional titles — 1987, 2003 (1A) and 2004 (1A).

Arnold expects to have athletes splitting their time between track and baseball. Sharing athletes at a small school means cooperation among coaches.

“All get along and work together,” says Arnold. “Kids have to pitch which sport is their priority.”

Former Trojans pitcher Colby Malson is now a senior at Goshen College.

“There are several in next few years that could play at the next level,” says Arnold, who will be assisted by Scott Overley, Jason Dyer and volunteer Dean Muehller.

Tri-Central plays its game on campus. There are no planned updates to the field, but the Trojans are expected to get a new look.

“They used to have an all-white home uniform,” says Arnold. “We’re going to get away from that. We have a grass field with brick dust and it’s hard to get that stuff out.”

Consequently, Tri-Central will go with gold tops at home, blue tops on the road and gray pants.

Arnold is a 1988 Elwood (Ind.) Community High School graduate. He attended William Penn College (now William Penn University) in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and Indiana University Kokomo for one year each.

Shane and Kelly Arnold have been married for 28 years and have four children and three granddaughters. Son Shane Thomas Arnold is an Elwood High teacher and the Panthers new head baseball coach. Daughter Caitlyn is married for a Marine at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina named Jordan. Son Aiden is a Tri-Central senior football and baseball player. Son Brody is TC sixth grader who plays football, basketball and baseball.

“There’s no down season at our house,” says Arnold. “It’s football, basketball, baseball, something.”

The Arnold family shares a moment at the football field. Tri-Central head coach Shane Arnold is with son Aiden Arnold, wife Kelly Arnold and son Brody Arnold. Shane is also the head baseball coach for the Sharpsville, Ind.-based Trojans.

Shane Arnold, Kelly Arnold and Aiden Arnold enjoy a family moment. Shane is the head football and baseball coach at Tri-Central High School in Sharpsville, Ind.

Kelly and Shane Arnold pause while on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Shane is the head football and baseball coach at Tri-Central High School in Sharpsville, Ind.

Kelly and Shane Arnold have been married for 28 years. He is head baseball and football coach at Tri-Central High School. He has coached softball Tri-Central and Taylor High School and been involved in youth baseball for decades.

Shane Arnold (left), the head baseball and football coach at Tri-Central High School in Sharpsville, Ind., stands with son Aiden, a senior on both teams in 2019-20.

The two Shane Arnolds between games of a 2019 high school baseball doubleheader. The father (on the left) is head coach at Tri-Central High School. The son (at the right) was an assistant last spring and is to be the head coach at Elwood (Ind.) Community High School in 2020.

 

Scott wants Clinton Prairie Gophers to go, go, go on the bases

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Aggressiveness on the bases.

That’s what Clinton Prairie Junior-Senior High School baseball coach Matt Scott emphasizes with his Gophers.

“We put pressure on the defense,” says Scott, who enters his seventh season in charge at the Frankfort, Ind.-based school in 2019. “We do a lot of hit-and-run and bunt-and-run. We find ways to make the defense make the play.”

Led by seniors Kameron Peters (30) and Sam Schoonveld (10), the 2018 Gophers collected 83 stole bases while going 10-14. Clinton Prairie swiped 70 bases in 2017 (led by Peters’ 18) and 75 in 2016 (paced by Peters’ 14). Schoonveld went on to play football at the University of Indianapolis.

Scott is a 1998 Frankfort High School graduate. His baseball coach with the Hot Dogs was Torrey Rodkey. Scott earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations (2002) and master’s degree in political science (2003) and now teaches social studies to both junior high and high school students at Clinton Prairie.

It was while doing his practicum and student teaching at Frankfort that Scott was bitten by the baseball coaching bug. He spent a couple years on the staff of Andy Dudley.

After that, Scott was an assistant to Dan Hilgediek at Clinton Prairie for six years before taking over the Gophers program.

Scott says he learned things from each coach that helps him in his current position.

“(Dudley) is very detail-oriented,” says Scott. “He let’s the kids play the game, but there’s a sense of fundamentals,” says Scott. “He showed me organization and how to run a practice.”

Dudley was able to get his players to understand concepts like footwork and the intricacies of hitting.

Scott says Hilgidiek’s strength was as an in-game tactician.

“He knew when to go to the mound vs. letting the kids work through it,” says Scott. “He handled situations with umpires and with kids.

“He got the kids to understand that you play the way you practice.”

The IHSAA now allows a coaches to work with the team for two hours a day two days a week during certain windows rather than just two athletes at a time.

During the fall, Clinton Prairie (enrollment of about 330) had baseball players involved in football and other sports, but up to 10 participated in baseball workouts.

“We’re a small school. It’s difficult to have a lot of kids,” says Scott. “But we were able to get into individual groups, scrimmage and work on different things — like hitting the ball to the right side.”

Winter workouts are held early in the morning. One week there will be a defense/pitching session on one day and hitting the next. It flips the following week. This allows athletes in wrestling and basketball who show up once a week to get work in both areas.

In recent seasons, the Gophers have had about 25 players for varsity and junior varsity squads.

Varsity assistants Brian Hennen and Kip Skinner and JV coach Jonas Lenehan are on Scott’s 2019 coaching staff. Jerrad Blacker runs the junior high program (separate teams for seventh and eighth grade) with oversight by Scott.

Besides the junior high, the Gophers’ feeder system includes Frankfort Little League and Town & Country leagues at Colfax and Mulberry plus various travel organizations.

All Clinton Prairie teams play on the same on-campus diamond. With former McCutcheon baseball coach and current CP athletic director Brian Eaton leading the way, sponsorships have been formed with local businesses to fund projects like double bullpens on both the home and visitor sides. There are also plans to skin the infield and re-plant sod and re-do the backstop.

Scott says baseball, football and softball are combining forces to seek a rural water grant that would bring irrigation to all their playing fields.

Clinton Prairie is a member of the Hoosier Heartland Conference (with Carroll of Flora, Clinton Central, Delphi, Eastern of Greentown, Rossville, Sheridan, Taylor and Tri-Central). Each team plays once to determine the champion. Delphi becomes a full HHC member in team sports in 2019-20.

Among the Gophers’ non-conference opponents are Frankfort, Covington, Fountain Central, Hamilton Heights, Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter, Covington and Southmont.

The Gophers are in an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping with Carroll of Flora, Delphi, Lafayette Central Catholic, Seeger and Western Boone. Clinton Prairie has won four sectionals — the last in 1993.

Matt and Megan Scott have two children — Cooper (5) and Lynnlee (14 months).

Matt and Megan Scott share a moment together. Matt is a teacher and head baseball coach at Clinton Prairie Junior-Senior High School in Frankfort, Ind.

Matt Scott goes for a winter stroll with son Cooper and daughter Lynnlee. Matt is a teacher and head baseball coach at Clinton Prairie Junior-Senior High School in Frankfort, Ind.

Three generations of Scott men attend a Chicago Cubs game (from left): Matt, Cooper and Richard. Matt is a teacher and head baseball coach at Clinton Prairie Junior-Senior High School in Frankfort, Ind.

Young Scott has mentally-tough Rossville in 1A state championship game

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Brad Scott has steadily risen through the baseball coaching ranks and now finds himself leading a program one win from a state championship.

Scott, 26, is in his first full season at Rossville High School (he took over in 2016) and will lead the 24-8 Hornets against Lanesville (19-6) in the IHSAA Class 1A title game at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 17 at Victory Field in Indianapolis.

“It’s kinda crazy,” says Scott of his coaching ascent from recreation ball to all-stars to travel baseball to high school assistant and then head coach. “Coaching’s been a part of me since I was 16.”

Scott played two seasons at Lafayette Jeff and one at McCutcheon, where he graduated in 2009. He then played two seasons at Blackburn College in Carlinville, Ill., before returning to the Lafayette area.

He was going to be an assistant at McCutcheon when Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Jake Burton left that program and was hired at Rossville, which is located in Clinton Couny.

The 2017 Hornets feature a regular lineup with four senior leaders — shortstop Matt Homco, third baseman-pitcher Trevor Waggoner, Nate Clendenen and first baseman Harrison Whitman — and five sophomores.

“We are a very, very mentally strong team,” says Scott. “The leadership we have at the senior level is like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

The Hornets went 6-2 and placed fourth in the Hoosier Heartland Conference, which played a round robin followed by crossover games. Rossville is in the West Division with Carroll (Flora), Clinton Prairie, Frontier and Tri-County. The East Division includes Eastern (Greentown), Clinton Central, Sheridan and Tri-Central.

Tackling a regular-season schedule with bigger schools like Kokomo, Lafayette Harrison and Logansport in 4A, Maconaquah, Peru and West Lafayette in 3A has toughened Rossville for the postseason.

“That’s how you advance in the tournament — preparation and facing adversity,” says Scott, whose assistant coaches are Jon Jacoby, Evan Muinzer and Mason Roberts.

Rossville bested Pioneer and Clinton Central to win the Frontier Sectional, Daleville and Hagerstown to reign at the Carroll (Flora) Regional and South Newton to take the Plymouth Semistate.

The sectional title was the fourth in school history and first since 2002.

“That’s been really cool for our community,” says Scott. “And it’s made the kids believe.”

Scott Stair was Rossville’s head coach in 2000 when the Hornets won their first regional and made its first State Finals appearance.

Scott has welcomed new IHSAA pitch count rules (1 to 35 pitches requires 0 days rest; 36 to 60 requires 1 day; 61 to 80 requires 2 days; 81 to 100 requires 3 days; and 101 to 120 requires 4 days) because it has allowed him to be less “tricky” in calling pitches and trying to strike opponents out or chase pitches out of the strike zone.

Hornet pitchers are much more likely to pitch to contact and Scott likes to switch up his arms to give opponents different looks.

“If we have a walk or go deep in counts, our defense can fall asleep,” says Scott. “It’s helped the whole process. Let them hit it. It’s worked so far.

“A lot of the teams we have in the postseason have a 1A (starter on the mound). I’m not a fan of letting a batter see the pitcher too many times in one game so they don’t get too comfortable.”

Lanesville will be making its second straight 1A championship appearance. The Eagles lost to Daleville in 2016.

Brad Scott, who took over as head baseball coach at Rossville early in the 2016, has the 2017 Hornets in the IHSAA Class 1A state championship game. (Aaron Kennedy/Frankfort Times Photo)

Tiny Tri-County’s LeBeau stresses diamond details

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

When you’re a small school, you learn how to make the most of what you’ve got.

That’s what Jeff LeBeau has done at Tri-County High School, an IHSAA Class 1A institution that houses about 250 students.

LeBeau, a 1995 Tri-County graduate, is in his 16th season as Cavaliers head baseball coach after one season as junior varsity coach under Denny Stitz.

Jeff began coaching local youth baseball as a high school junior. After high school, he began assisting his father Craig, a Wolcott High School graduate and former Butler University pitcher who spent 50 years as a player, assistant coach and manager for Remington American Legion Post 280 before retiring a few seasons ago.

The younger LeBeau played four seasons for Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Mike Frame at Huntington University before coming back to Tri-County, which is based in the White County town of Wolcott and also serves parts of Jasper and Benton counties.

Stitz, who helped Tri-County win a Class 1A state title by beating Joe Rademacher’s Barr-Reeve club in 1998, taught Jeff LeBeau how to be successful at a small school.

“Attention to detail is crucial,” says LeBeau. “The student-athlete needs to be able to perform the fundamentals correctly. The  selection pool is limited. You have to get the most out of your student-athlete’s ability.”

LeBeau recalls that Stitz was very organized.

“There was not a practice that went unscheduled or unplanned,” says LeBeau. “We were always active.”

Jeff watched his father take a group of 15 to 18 boys from spring rivals and mesh them into a cohesive summer team that won multiple sectionals and regionals and competed a few times in the Indiana American Legion State Finals. Post 280 has not sponsored a team since Craig LeBeau stepped away. Nearby Lake Village Post 375 does.

In Frame, Jeff saw another detail-oriented coach and one dedicated to teaching more than the game to a group of youngsters — many away from home for the first time.

“He was a great father figure to us,” says LeBeau. “He was good at using the game of baseball to teach us life lessons.

“He taught me a different style of running a baseball practice, breaking down the game action into minor details.”

Playing home games at Remington Community Park (about six miles off-campus), Tri-County carries about 18 to 22 players in all four grades. This year, the Cavaliers played a full junior varsity schedule. The majority of road games are an hour or less from home with some trips to the Lafayette area.

The 2017 season marked Tri-County’s second in the Hoosier Heartland Conference. In 2017-18, the Cavs will be part of the reformed Midwest Athletic Conference (with Frontier, North Newton, North White, South Newton and West Central).

Remington Community Park and Wolcott Community Park host Cal Ripken baseball for ages 7-12. Players from North White, Rensselaer and West Central also take part.

Babe Ruth baseball teams (ages 13-15) travel to other area parks.

The Cavaliers have drawn into Game 1 of the eight-team Tri-County Sectional on Wednesday, May 24. The hosts will be after the seventh sectional crown in program history and third during LeBeau’s head coaching tenure (the others came in 2007 and 2011).

LeBeau, an IHSBCA district representative, says the new pitch count rules adopted by the IHSAA in 2017 (1 to 35 pitches requires 0 days rest; 36 to 60 requires 1 day; 61 to 80 requires 2 days; 81 to 100 requires 3 days; and 101 to 120 requires 4 days) are bound to be felt during the postseason.

“It will definitely come into play during sectional,” says LeBeau. “How quickly can your No. 1 or No. 2 bounce back?

“It’s not going away. We’ll see what needs to be tweaked (in the future).”