By STEVE KRAH
Amir Wright’s baseball role has gone from player to coach.
The 2016 graduate of Griffith (Ind.) High School was a lefty swinging and throwing outfielder for the Panthers, Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., Saint Leo (Fla.) University and Ball State University and saw his last game action in 2022 with the MLB Draft League’s Frederick (Md.) Keys and signed with the Evansville (Ind.) Otters in November 2022.
“I got injury after injury and didn’t know what I wanted to do,” says Wright. “Griffith called and asked if I was interested in coaching. I entertained it and prayed on it, talked to God and found it’s time to go a different path and go into coaching.”
After a short stint as a volunteer assistant to Whiting (Ind.) High School head coach Jacob Hunt before heading off for indy ball, Wright is now the head coach as his prep alma mater.
The Griffith Public Schools board approved the hiring of Wright, who turns 26 in February, on Tuesday, Oct. 24.
A call-out meeting was held before Wright was named head coach and he hopes to have his own soon.
“I’m going to emphasize playing the right way and playing hard, being disciplined, buying in, being part of a team and being selfless,” says Wright of the culture he looks to build for the Panthers. “Those are things I learned at Ball State that really helped. We also want to be really good people and really good students.
“It’s important to be good on the field but it’s even more important to be good off the field.”
Wright played for Brian Jennings at Griffith, Rick O’Dette at both Saint Joseph’s and Saint Leo and Rich Maloney at Ball State.
“A lot of the people who mentored me and I played for led me to be in the position I am,” says Wright. “I’ll take a little bit from each person and incorporate it into my own thing.”
Griffith (enrollment around 630) is a member of the Greater South Shore Conference (with Calumet New Tech, Gary West Side, Hammond Bishop Noll Institute, Lake Station Edison, River Forest, Wheeler and Whiting as baseball-playing members).
The Panthers were part of an IHSAA Class 3A sectional in 2024 grouping with Andrean, Boone Grove, Calumet New Tech, Hanover Central, Highland, Rensselaer Central and River Forest. Griffith has won 18 sectional titles — the last in 2021.
Wright has brought Hammond Bishop Noll Institute graduate Angel Figueroa as a varsity assistant who will lead infielders and help with hitting and baserunning. He is looking for a pitching coach and junior varsity coaches.
The Panthers practice and play on Brian Jennings Field.
“I’m going to take care of it to the best of my ability, make it the most playable and one of the better fields in the area,” says Wright.
Amir and younger brothers A.J. Wright (a 2019 Griffith graduate who played at Northwood University in Midland, Mich.) and Aydin Wright (a 2022 graduate of Thornwood in South Holland, Ill., now at Frontier Community College in Fairfield, Ill., who recently committed to Central Michigan University for 2024-25) all grew up playing in Griffith Youth Baseball.
“There’s some things I want to do within youth baseball to get more kids playing, learn the game and be more advanced so when they do come to the high school level they’re ready to go,” says Wright. “I’m looking to start a middle school team (likely to play in the fall) in the next year or two. They can get accustomed to what I want from them and the first time they see me is not freshman year.”
In addition to Aydin Wright, some recent Griffith alums to move on to college baseball include the Class of 2019’s Kyle Iwinski at Purdue University and Johnny Maynard at the University of Mount Olive in North Carolina and 2022’s Mikey Feliciano at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting.
Besides making plans for his new role, Griffith resident Wright is studying for a nutrition and personal training license and giving lessons in the afternoons at Batting Champs in Crown Point, Ind.