By STEVE KRAH
Clarksville (Ind.) High School sports a robust baseball past.
The Generals earned plenty of IHSAA hardware in the 39 seasons that Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Wayne Stock was head coach.
Besides a State Finals appearance in 1971, Stock’s teams won 744 games with 20 Mid-Southern Conference titles, 12 sectional championships, five regional crowns and one semistate trophy.
Clarksville appears all over the IHSBCA record book.
The Generals hold single-season team marks in batting with 241 walks and pitching with 32 complete games — both in 1971.
The 1973 pitching staff racked up 428 strikeouts and posted a 0.73 earned run average, accomplishments which rank second and third, respectively. The 1968 team hurled 16 shutouts, which ranks tied for fifth.
Dan Gibson set a record for at-bats with 152 in 1971.
Joe McMahel (1995-98) had the most career at-bats with 459 while Matt James (1994-97) ranks fifth. McMahel and James (1994-97) are tied for 10th in career hits with 173 apiece.
D.J. Dewees stole 60 bases in 1992, the third-most in single-season state history.
Brad Turner (1993-96) enjoyed quite the Clarksville pitching career. He is second in starts (52), third in complete games (420), fourth in innings (356) and tied for fifth in shutouts (14).
Guy Finch (1975-78) is third in career shutouts (17), tied for fifth in career wins (43), tied for sixth in single-season strikeouts (199 in 1977) and eighth in career strikeouts (524).
Gary Melson (1968-71) is tied for seventh in career shutouts (13). The right-hander played at Middle Tennessee State University and was selected in the 15th round of the 1975 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Cleveland Indians. He pitched in the minors through 1981, spending part or all of three seasons in Triple-A.
Jeff Lentz (1965-68) is tied for seventh in career complete games (34).
Turning to defense, Rob Stockdale (1977-80) ranks first in putouts for a career (952) and single season (360 in 1977).
Steve Hartley (1984-87) is sixth in career infield putouts and assists excluding a first baseman (391).
Kelly Allen (1995-98) is ninth in career putouts (712).
Shayne Stock, Wayne’s son, used to be head coach at Hanover (Ind.) College. Wayne Stock once counted Chris McIntyre (New Albany High School head coach) as an assistant and Eric Stotts (Borden High School head coach) as a player.
Jamie Knight, who has coached at various levels since he was 18, is heading into his sixth season as head coach at his alma mater. The 1983 Clarksville graduate played for Stock and is trying to restore an expectation of excellence if not in quite the same old-school way that his coach did.
“He was definitely an influence on me,” says Knight. “He was a cross between Johnny Carson and Bobby Knight.
“He was a funny guy, but he’d certainly tell you when you weren’t doing things right.”
Knight founded the Floyds Knobs (Ind.) American Legion Post 42 baseball program and credits that experience, working with Ricky Romans (who is also head coach at Charlestown High School) for showing him how to handle the current generation of ballplayer.
After serving one season as junior varsity coach at Floyd Central, Knight took the reins at Clarksville for the 2014 season. The Generals had just 12 players in the entire program that first spring.
By the next year, participation had doubled and Knight re-established a JV team and the varsity earned the school’s first sectional title since 2003.
“Clarksville has been a strong baseball school,” says Knight. “When I got here it resembled nothing like that. I’ve tried to to bring that back — the respect for the game, tradition and doing things the right way.
“I’m a strong believer that if you do things the right way, act the right way and show respect for the game that will translate into wins and success
“The hardest part was to get the kids to believe they could reach that level again.”
Another sectional championship was claimed in 2018, beating Eastern (Pekin) in the Class 2A final at Clarksville’s Wayne Stock Field. The Generals’ season ended with a semifinal loss to North Posey at the Austin Regional.
Senior Dee Shelton, a lefty-swinging center fielder and righty-throwing pitcher, has committed to play baseball at Trine University.
Recent Clarksville graduates to move on to the college diamond include Ethan Cummings (Vincennes University), Seth Hamilton (Manchester University for baseball and football) and Nick Jones (Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg, Ill.).
Clarksville is in a sectional grouping with Crawford County, Eastern (Pekin), Henryville, Lanesville and Paoli. The IHSAA success factor has moved Providence to 3A while Lanesville came up from 1A.
With an enrollment around 490, Clarksville is the second-smallest school in the Mid-Southern Conference (Austin is smallest at around 375). Other MSC members include Brownstown Central, Charlestown, Corydon Central, Eastern (Pekin), North Harrison, Salem, Scottsburg and Silver Creek.
Knight’s 2019 assistants are Joel DeMoss (fourth season) and Nathan Kane (first season). His first two years at Clarksville, Knight took two former Indiana University Southeast players — Zach Adams and Carter Sibley — as assistants on the recommendation of Grenadiers head coach Ben Reel.
“I like having young coaches coming right from playing in college,” says Knight. “They bring knew drills and they can throw lots of batting practice.”
Adams went on to coach at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., while Sibley went to coach at Campbellsville (Ky.) University.
Clarksville Little League develops some players that will wind up at Clarksville. Others go to Jeffersonville, Providence or Silver Creek.
Former Generals base stealer Dewees is a regional director for the Clarksville/Louisville portion of the Rawlings Tigers travel organization.
Knight spent 25 years with Louisville Metro Police.
“This is kind of my second career,” says Knight of serving as head baseball coach and assistant to athletic director Levi Carmichael at Clarksville.
Knight signed out of high school to play tennis and baseball at Franklin College. When the men’s tennis season was moved from the fall to the spring, he stayed on the court instead of the diamond. He transferred to the University of Louisville and earned a degree in police administration.
Jamie and wife Debbie reside in Floyds Knobs and have been married almost 20 years. She is an occupational therapist.
“She’s fantastic,” says Jamie. “She allows me to coach.”
Jamie’s two sons are both former baseball players at Floyd Central.
Ryan Knight (28) played baseball and tennis for the Highlanders then signed at Franklin College. An injury kept him from playing. He is now a Sellersburg, Ind., police officer.
Patrick Knight (26) was a left-handed pitcher for two seasons at Ancilla College in Donaldson, Ind.
Jamie Knight, a 1983 Clarksville (Ind.) High School graduate, is the head baseball coach at his alma mater.
www.IndianaRBI.com 