Newman’s job bringing Purdue pitcher strengths to the forefront

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Former major league pitcher and veteran pitching coach Josh Newman is now leading hurlers at Purdue University.

Newman, a graduate of Wheelersburg (Ohio) High School, pitched for Ohio State University (2001-04) — where he earned all-Big Ten Conference honors athletically and academically three times while playing for Buckeyes head coach Bob Todd.

The left-hander spent six seasons in pro baseball, including 14 regular-season games in the majors with the Colorado Rockies (2007 and 2008) and Kansas City Royals (2008). He was on Colorado’s active roster for the 2007 World Series.

Newman has coached at Ohio State (2011-13) for head coach Greg Beals, Marshall (2014-17) for Jeff Waggoner and Penn State (2018-23) for Rob Cooper.

Seven pitchers were selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft during Newman’s time in Happy Valley, including lefty Dante Biasi in the sixth round in 2019. He competed at Double-A in the Royals organization in 2022 and 2023.

Penn State pitchers produced a program-record 503 strikeouts in 2022, the third time in the last four full seasons the Nittany Lions whiffed 400 or more.

Newman, who attended the 2024 American Baseball Coaches Association Convention in Dallas, took over as Purdue pitching coach on the staff of Boilermakers head coach Greg Goff in July 2023.

He joins a leadership group that also includes assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Chris Marx and assistant/hitting coach Seth LaRue plus director of player development John Madia and supervisor of operations Hunter Roberts. Terry Rooney was on the previous pitching coach and is now recruiting coordinator at Louisiana State University.

“I’m walking into an opportunity that has so many positive things going,” says Newman, 41. “I so fortunate that I walked into that environment. By no means am I going to sit here and take all the credit.”

Karly Siegler oversees the student-led analytics team.

“She is a brilliant mind,” says Newman of Siegler. “She is a young lady that is going to go on and do extraordinary things. There’s no doubt about it.

“I’m very fortunate to have her and others on that staff constantly looking at different things and different ways to take data and integrate it, making it functional for our guys.”

Since arriving in West Lafayette with wife Sarah and three children (daughter Ayda and sons Kash and Miller), Newman has been familiarizing himself with his pitchers and getting them to identify and own their strengths and maximize their mobility.

“We can’t teach mechanics until we understand how the body moves,” says Newman. “Then you look at the pitch profile. What do we throw? Do we have any outliers as far as pitch types?”

Newman says that a combination of analytics, data drawn from available technology like TrackMan, Rapsodo and other sources, the baseball staff including Goff, Marx, LaRue and Madia and development team working together can help each pitcher know their strengths and benefit from them.

As pitching coach, Newman helps put the pieces of that puzzle together.

“It is important for you to understand who you’re dealing with what each guy brings to the table from a mentality standpoint,” says Newman. “Every kid’s different. For some, bombarding them with technology and data just doesn’t make sense when I’m trying to get them to understand commanding (their pitches) to certain tools or slowing the game down.”

Purdue’s fall roster includes 18 players listed as pitchers. Among returnees who logged the most mound time for Purdue in 2023 are seniors Jonathan Blackwell (72 1/3 innings), Kyle Iwinski (69 1/3), Aaron Suval (44 2/3), Davis Pratt (42 1/3), Jackson Dannelley (39 1/3), C.J. Backer (37) and Cal Lambert (22 2/3) and junior Carter Doorn (27 1/3). Blackwell and Lambert are left-handers. The others are right-handers.

“Having been at the highest level I understand how hard it is,” says Newman. “I know what goes into chasing a dream.

“But kids today are different than when I played and the game is different. It’s our job to understand what we can take and how we can connect with the guys. 

“What we do is something that I cherish. Everything I have has come from the game.”

Purdue is scheduled to open the 2024 season Feb. 16 against Stony Brook in Sugar Land, Texas.

Josh Newman. (Purdue University Image)

Leach takes over as Clarksville Generals field boss

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Ethan Leach is now in charge of the baseball program at Clarksville (Ind.) High School.

Leach, who was hired in August, was an assistant coach at Southwestern Middle/High School in Hanover, Ind., the past six years — three on Dan Thurston’s staff with the Rebels winning 50 games after three aiding Derik Hutton.

The opening with the Generals came when 1983 Clarksville graduate Jamie Knight stepped down as head coach at the end of the 2023 season. Knight is an assistant to CHS athletic director Levi Carmichael.

“I’ve had a great relationship with Levi,” says Leach. “He’s been really responsive.”

Leach, 26, is a 2015 graduate of Madison (Ind.) Consolidated High School where he played three varsity seasons for then-Cubs head coach Shannon Barger.

Born in LaGrange, Ky., 30 miles south of Madison, Leach lived all around Kentucky, moved to Alabama in the seventh grade and to Madison his freshman year.

He played baseball briefly at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany and considers former Grenadiers head coach Ben Reel a mentor. 

Leach then entered into the family business. The original company was Ohio Valley Excavating in Madison, which is now run by younger brother Eric Leach. Superior Vault in Charlestown was purchased in 2021. There is also a properties company.

Leach brings former Southwestern (Hanover) and Hanover College assistant Brendon Bump to Clarksville as his pitching coach. He is a former Marshall University pitcher.

“I have a lot of faith in what Bump can do,” says Leach. “I’m extremely lucky that I’ve got him.”

Interviews are scheduled with other coaching candidates.

In 2023, Clarksville had 12 players at the end of the season and competed only at the varsity level.

Clarksville (enrollment around 390) is an athletic independent.

While there are no conference titles to win or honors to receive, that’s not what matters most to Leach.

“I want to get to (IHSAA) tournament time and win those titles,” says Leach. “(Being independent) also helps with your pitching. It’s Monday or Wednesday night and I have to pitch this guy because it’s a conference game or I can’t pitch him because a conference game is the next day.”

The Generals are part of an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping in with Crawford County, Eastern (Pekin), Paoli and Providence. Clarksville has won 14 sectional titles — the last in 2018.

Respecting the fall seasons of players, Leach has not met with players during the current IHSAA Limited Contact Period, which concludes Oct. 14 and has his sights on the next one.

“We will definitely hit it a few times a week in the winter,” says Leach.

The Generals practice and play on Wayne Stock Field (named for the former coach and Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer).

“Coach Knight did a tremendous job of taking care of the field,” says Leach. “He’s got it in really good shape and that’s something we plan to keep doing.”

In recent years, a press box/concession stand was among upgrades to the facility.

Leach says he plans to former a relationship with Clarksville Little League.

“I want to at least make my presence known,” says Leach. “I’ll try to make a difference that way, whether they come to (Clarksville) or not.”

Clarksville Middle School, which has grades 5-8, fields a team in the spring.

Ethan and Bri Leach, who reside in Sellersburg, Ind., were married in July and have a son — Graham (almost 5 months).

Ethan Leach.

Clarksville High School.

Thurston now leading Southwestern Rebels on diamond

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Nearly a decade after guiding a high school baseball program, Dan Thurston is back in that role.

Hired as School Resource Officer at Southwestern High School in Hanover, Ind., in January 2020, he became Rebels head baseball coach around mid-year.

Thurston was head coach at nearby Madison (Ind.) Consolidated High School 2009-11 while also serving as D.A.R.E officer in the junior high. He resigned as baseball coach when he became chief of the City of Madison Police Department.

Meanwhile, he headed up Long Toss Indiana LLC and the Indiana Rawlings Tigers LLC, helping players with arm care and Mental Toughness Training.

A few years ago, Thurston sold the businesses as a package. He was invited by head coach Grant Bellak to join the Hanover College coaching staff and had spent 2019 and 2020 with the Panthers when the opportunities came along at Southwestern.

“One thing I really enjoyed about Hanover was the personal interaction with players,” says Thurston, who played tennis, basketball and baseball at Mooresville (Ind.) High School and baseball at Hanove. “They knew where they were in life and where they were going to go. They were thankful to play more baseball. But it’s probably not going to be their profession after college.

“I learned so much in the last two years about how to run a program and how to run a practice. I think I’ll be a much better coach than I was before.”

As SRO, Thurston estimates that he spends more than half his time on relationships with the rest split between counseling and his law enforcement duties.

Until becoming coach, he got to know students as people and not as athletes. 

Thurston took the coaching job in time to lead a few summer workouts in June and then guided IHSAA Limited Contact Period activities in the fall.

“It was intrasquad games, (batting practice), infield drills and arm care. We did long toss to stretch arms out,” says Thurston. “Looking back on it, it more about me getting to the know the kids and the program and them getting to know me and my style.

“My style has evolved over the years. At Madison — to a fault — I was a little bit of a control freak. Now I have really good assistants and I expect them to coach.”

Thurston’s Rebels staff includes Ethan Leach, Brian Crank and Brendon Bump.

Leach played at Madison Consolidated and Indiana University Southeast. Crank, who is dean of students and junior varsity boys basketball coach at Southwestern, played at Franklin (Ind.) College an was a JV coach for Thurston at Madison. Pitching coach Bump took the mound for Marshall University (Huntington, W.Va.) and was on Shayne Stock’s Hanover coaching staff.

Winter conditioning began at Southwestern last week. Thurston expects around 22 players for varsity and junior varsity teams in the spring.

Southwestern (enrollment around 375) is a member of the Ohio River Valley Conference (with Jac-Cen-Del, Milan, Rising Sun, Shawe Memorial, South Ripley and Switzerland County).

ORVC teams play each other twice on a home-and-home basis.

Though it may not happen in 2021, Thurston says he would like those games to come in the same week.

“That avoids team having one really good pitcher to space out their conference games and pitch the same kid in every game,” says Thurston. “You get more of a true team conference champion.”

Super ATV Field, located on the Southwestern campus, has a turfed home plate area. A new scoreboard — never used with the cancellation of the 2020 season — is expected to be in-place for the Rebels’ first home game of 2021.

Thurston says there’s talk of lighting the field and expanding the dugouts.

“Of course that comes down to that almighty dollar,” says Thurston.

The Rebels are part of an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping with Milan, North Decatur, South Decatur, South Ripley and Switzerland County. Southwestern’s lone sectional title came in 1999.

The Madison Cubs are on the Rebels’ schedule. Southwestern has never beaten Madison in varsity baseball. When the Rebels won the Class 2A Jeffersonville Regional in 1999, the Cubs and Indiana Mr. Baseball Bryan Bullington won the 3A state championship.

“I’m going to be low key,” says Thurston of this spring’s Southwestern-Madison meeting. “I’m going to treat it just like any other game.

“There’s no pressure for us to win.”

Thurston is also a regional scout for SportsForce Baseball — a recruiting service that helps players find the best fit at the college level.

Last summer, he was able to help athletes while serving as a tournament director for Pastime Tournaments. 

“I often tell players to take baseball out of the equation,” says Thurston. “Is it the right fit academically, financially and socially? Is it the right distance from home and the right size of school?

“Check all the other boxes first. If baseball is important to you, let’s go somewhere we can play. Some are OK with being the program guy.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic has come extra years of eligibility for college players. Thurston says his gut tells him that it may be until 2023 before the trickle-down effect that hits younger college players — and even high schoolers — settles down.

There has traditionally been youth baseball run by the Hanover parks department. Southwestern schedules up to 20 games in the spring for its junior team of seventh and eighth graders.

Recent Southwestern graduate Bailey Elliott is on the baseball roster at Vincennes (Ind.) University. Thurston says he expects the Rebels to produce more college players in the next few years.

Dan and wife Jackie Thurston will be married 32 years in March. The couple has three children — Trey (29), Ryan (26) and Trisha (22).

Trey Thurston is in veterinary school at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.

Left-handed pitcher Ryan Thurston played at Madison Consolidated and Western Kentucky University and in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. He was with the independent Chicago Dogs and Gary SouthShore RailCats in 2019 and is expected to be back with that club in 2021. Gary did not field a team in 2020 and Thurston went with the indy Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks and Winnipeg Goldeyes.

University of Cincinnati graduate Trisha Thurston works for Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati.

Dan Thurston was an assistant baseball coach at Hanover (Ind.) College in 2019 and 2020. He is now head coach at Southwestern High School in Hanover.

Dan Thurston is the head baseball coach at Southwestern High School in Hanover, Ind., and a regional scout for SportsForce Baseball. He was head coach at Madison (Ind.) Consolidated High School 2009-11 and the formerly owned Long Toss Indiana LLC and Indiana Rawlings Tigers LLC.

Turner has Richmond Red Devils focusing on the details

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Shawn Turner wants his Richmond (Ind.) High School Red Devils to sweat the small stuff.

“We focus on the details,” says Turner, a veteran coach who heads into his fourth season of leading the Richmond program in 2019. “We want give it our best effort 100 percent of the time. We pay attention to the defensive side and how we’re pitching.

“Offensively, we look to ‘get on, get over and get in.’ We play at a big facility (Don McBride Stadium). We don’t sit back and wait on the three-run home run.”

Turner looks for his Red Devils to hit balls to the gaps and rack up doubles.

“We teach the concept of using the whole field,” says Turner.

When it comes to launch angle, Turner says it is for the advanced hitter. T.J. Collett, who began working with Turner at a young age, put in the time to make himself into a potent left-handed hitter who named Mr. Baseball by Hoosier Diamond Magazine in 2016 and is now swinging for the University of Kentucky.

“It’s fantastic for kids with elite talent who have great hitting philosophy and the ability to execute it,” says Turner. “I’m more concerned with hitting a solid. Exit velocity is a factor. We do chart that. If you have four at-bats, we try to hit it hard four times and see what happens.”

Contact is key and strikeouts don’t help in moving runners.

“We do try to put pressure on the defense and put the ball in play,” says Turner, who coached his first season in Richmond in 2016 after serving as a Wabash College assistant in 2015.

The 1988 Terre Haute North Vigo High School graduate was head coach at his alma mater 1998-2014 after serving two seasons as a Patriots assistant.

The 2014 North Vigo team was IHSAA Class 4A state runners-up.

He was a McCutcheon assistant in 1994 and 1995, West Vigo assistant  in 1993 and Terre Haute North Vigo assistant in 1990, 1991 and 1992.

Turner played two seasons for Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Don Jennings and two for Steve Moore. He later was a part of Moore’s coaching staff.

“(Jennings) was always a very positive influence not only on me but on his coaches and the team as a whole,” says Turner. “In practice, we did a ton of offensive work. If we put runs up we had a chance of competing.

“(Moore) carried on a lot of Coach Jennings’ traits. My first couple of years coaching within were a continuation of what I learned in high school.”

Turner also gained from the teachings of North Vigo assistant Mike Sturm.

“He was more into fundamental skills and defensive work,” says Turner of Sturm. “He broke things into positions and individual parts.”

Turner played one season for head coach Jim Rendel at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology while studying civil and mechanical engineering.

“(Rendel) had the biggest influence on me becoming a coach,” says Turner. “He was an amazing individual that did so much for people through sport.”

Turner decided to change gears and pursue a different life path. He transferred to Indiana State University to major in mathematics and become a teacher and coach.

He did his student teaching at West Vigo and worked with Steve DeGroote then joined the staff of Jake Burton at McCutcheon. Both are IHSBCA Hall of Famers.

“Those two were cut from the same cloth,” says Turner of DeGroote and Burton. “They were Fantastic at setting up indoor practices where you were going from station to station and maximizing your practice time.”

Turner notes that there are areas around the state have embraced the idea of getting better at baseball and that’s where indoor facilities have popped up and produced many players who have succeeded at the lower levels and gone on to college and professional diamonds.

“We’ve got baseball talent in the state of Indiana,” says Turner, who gets indoor work done at Richmond at the spacious Tiernan Center and the school’s auxiliary gym.

While McBride Stadium is run by the city and is off-campus, the Red Devils sometimes take advantage of the turf on the football field for outdoor practice.

Turner gives a few private lessons on the side. Several Richmond players get in work at Cate’s Cages and Hitters Hangout. IHSBCA Hall of Famer John Cate started both facilities. He now teaches at Cate’s Cages along with Jordan Ashbrook, Patrick Flanagan and Mike Morrow. Tyler Lairson is an instructor at Hitters Hangout.

Former Red Devils moving on to college baseball in recent years include right-handed pitcher John Cheatwood (Lincoln Trail College in Robinson, Ill., and committed to Marshall University in Huntington, W.V.), right-hander Jordan Christian (Earlham College in Richmond) and middle infielder Austin Turner (Indiana Wesleyan University). Austin is Shawn’s oldest son.

Current senior outfielder/right-hander Josiah Sizemore has committed to Ivy Tech Northeast in Fort Wayne, Ind. Versatile Phillip Hobbs and right-hander/third baseman/shortstop Mikey Vance are also exploring their collegiate options.

When building his Red Devils pitching staff, Turner looks to develop a number of arms to lesson the workload on the top hurlers so they will be fresher for the postseason.

The exception might be Blake Holler, who threw many innings for Terre Haute North Vigo before going on to Stanford University and the Los Angeles Angels system.

But sharing the work has been a philosophy Turner carried in Terre Haute and long before the pitch count rule (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).

“We focus on longevity,” says Turner. “The season is a marathon and not a sprint. I’ve always make sure our top two or three pitchers are strong at the end of the season. We might go eight-, nine- or 10-deep during the season.”

This approach also helps those pitchers to be ready the following season.

Turner’s 2019 Richmond staff includes Dave Marker, Scott Vance and Ben Fox. Marker is the Red Devils pitching coach and a former Randolph Southern head coach.

Richmond fields two teams — varsity and junior varsity. The most players Turner has had is 33 and he’s never made any cuts.

Contrast that with Terre Haute North Vigo, where he says the fewest number to try out was 80 and he’d keep 50 to 55 for three teams.

Richmond belongs to the North Central Conference (with Richmond, Anderson, Arsenal Tech, Marion and Muncie Central in the East Division and Harrison, Kokomo, Lafayette Jeff, Logansport and McCutcheon in the West Division). Teams play home-and-home series within their divisions then compete in a seeded cross-divisional tournament the two Saturdays in May.

The Red Devils, which are coming off a 14-14 season in 2018, are in an IHSAA Class 4A sectional grouping with Anderson, Connersville, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon (Fortville), Muncie Central and Pendleton Heights.

Richmond has won 29 sectional titles — the last coming in 2011.

Shawn is married to Tiffany, who is Chief Nursing Officer at Paris (Ill.) Community Hospital. Their sons are Austin and Nick. Besides playing baseball, Austin Turner is neurology student at Indiana Wesleyan. Nick is a Richmond freshmen and a lefty-swinging catcher.

The Turners (from left): Nick, Tiffany, Austin and Shawn. The 2016 season was Shawn Turner’s first as head baseball coach at Richmond (Ind.) High School.

Austin Turner (27) is greeted by Terre Haute North Vigo baseball coaches Mark Sturm (left), Tony Smodilla, Lance Walsh, Steve Bryant, Fay Spetter and Shawn Turner at the IHSAA Class 4A State Finals at Victory Field in Indianapolis. Shawn Turner is now head coach at Richmond (Ind.) High School.

Terre Haute North Vigo High School head baseball coach Shawn Turner (left) talks with his son, Austin Turner (27), and assistant Fay Spetter during the 2014 IHSAA Class 4A semistate.

Shawn Turner enters his fourth season as head baseball coach at Richmond (Ind.) High School in 2019.