IHSBCA chooses all-staters for 2022

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

Members of the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association have voted for its 2022 all-state teams in each class.
Pitcher Owen Willard (Eastside), catcher Keifer Wilson (Greencastle), first baseman Brycen Hannah (John Glenn), shortstops Tucker Biven (New Albany) and Dominic Decker (Silver Creek) and outfielders Max Clark (Franklin Community), Evan Pearce (Oak Hill) and Andrew Wiggins (Heritage Christian) are repeat all-state performers.
Shortstops Ethan Bock (Fremont) and Gavin Lash (Wapahani) are repeaters at a different position.

2022 IHSBCA ALL-STATE TEAM
Class 4A
Pitchers: Ethan McCormick (West Lafayette Harrison), Drew Dickson (Zionsville), Gage Stanifer (Westfield).
C: Sam Gladd (Columbia City).
1B: Nick Wiley (Mooresville).
2B: Josh Adamczewski (Lake Central).
3B: Jake Winzenread (Lawrence North).
SS: Tucker Biven* (New Albany).
OF: Garrison Barile (Center Grove), Max Clark* (Franklin Community), Connor Misch (Lake Central).
Honorable Mention: Collin Lindsey (Westfield); Drew Bradley (Jasper); Andrew Clements (New Albany); John Curl (Kokomo); Kevin Hall (Munster); Luke Legault (New Palestine); Brayden Rouse (East Central); Connor Foley (Jasper); Gavin Smith (Logansport); Joe Huffman (Avon); Cameron Decker (Evansville North); Brody Chrisman (Zionsville); Jack Brown (Fishers); Garrett Jones (New Albany); Gavin Collins (Northridge); Carson Dunn (Fishers); Chris Hedinger (Jasper); Owen Quinn (Lawrence North); Kannon Stull (Jeffersonville); Ethan Lyke (Evansville Central); Joey Wilmoth (Fishers); Kevin Reed (Martinsville); Brayden Risedorph (East Noble); Caden Crowell (Valparaiso); Conor Pangburn (Lake Central); Ethan Ianni (Columbus East).

Class 3A
Pitchers: Mitchell Dean (Western), Andrew Dutkanych (Brebeuf Jesuit), Peyton Niksch (Andrean).
C: Keifer Wilson* (Greencastle).
1B: Brycen Hannah* (John Glenn).
2B: Jace Burton (Silver Creek).
3B: Collin Stephens (John Glenn).
SS: Dominic Decker* (Silver Creek).
OF: Evan Pearce* (Oak Hill), Parker Dean (Western), Grady Keppling (New Prairie).
Honorable Mention: Jax Kalemba (Andrean); Alex Watkins (Western); David Edwards (Scottsburg); Gabe Skelton (West Vigo); Brayton Bowen (Lebanon); Brookes Walters (North Montgomery); Grant Brooks (Wawasee); Carter Murphy (West Vigo); Silas Kaser (John Glenn); Ian Potts (Peru); Joe Chrapliwy (John Glenn); Landon Carr (Northview); Jayden Ohmer (Brebeuf Jesuit); Jayce Lee (South Bend Saint Joseph); Drew Lanning (Lawrenceburg); David Edwards (Scottsburg); Cole Wise (Northwestern); Dalton Wasson (Heritage); Colin Kapust (Silver Creek).

Class 2A
Pitchers: Alec Hershberger (Fairfield), Wyatt Blinn (Cascade), Owen Willard* (Eastside).
C: Chase Long (Delphi).
1B: Ben Seitzinger (Mitchell).
2B: Cayden Calloway (Eastern of Greentown).
3B: Dawson Glassco (Mitchell).
SS: Gavin Lash** (Wapahani).
OF: Gabe Eslinger (Linton-Stockton), Andrew Wiggins* (Heritage Christian), Kevin Corcoran (Illiana Christian), Wade Peters (Carroll of Flora).
Honorable Mention: Luke Willmann (Wapahani); Logan Gibbs (Cascade); Hunter Allen (Prairie Heights); Caleb Snyder (Monroe Central); Trey Pitcock (Boone Grove); Jamari Pamlin (Centerville); Noah Stephen (Seeger); Bracey Brenemen (Linton-Stockton); Aidyn Coffey (Monroe Central); Levi Mavrick (Eastern of Greentown); Caleb Edwards (Seeger); Bradyn Douglas (Frankton); Reid Keisling (Eastern of Greentown); Eli Harshbarger (Carroll of Flora); Caleb Edwards (Seeger); Ian VanBeel (Illiana Christian); Corbin Snyder (Eastern of Greentown); Grayson Knight (University); Will Eldridge (Carroll of Flora); Brock Buckley (Covenant Christian).

Class 1A
Pitchers: Peyton Merica (Rising Sun), Ben Mazur (Lafayette Central Catholic).
C: Nick Miller (Fremont).
1B: Chase Smith (Cowan).
2B: Brady Yeryar (Shakamak).
3B: Owen Winters (Kouts).
SS: Ethan Bock** (Fremont).
OF: Gavin Gentry (Borden), Korbin Lawson Tri-County), Seth Wagler Barr-Reeve).
Honorable Mention: Oscar Pegg (Shakamak); Mo Lloyd (Southwood); Nick Swartzentruber (Barr-Reeve); Derron Hazzard (Riverton Parke); Owen Munn (Lafayette Central Catholic); Gabe Kahl (Elkhart Christian Academy); AJ Agnew (Borden); Peyton Robins (Riverton Parke); Dylan Kindig (Argos); Brennen Martin (Dugger-Union); Elijah Quasebarth (North White); Colton Stull (Barr-Reeve); Hunter Collings (Riverton Parke); Dylan Toler (Borden); Joey Spin (Caston); Gabe Pentecost (Fremont); Bradley Ferrell (South Central (Union Mills); Carter Crews (Springs Valley).

* — repeat all-state performer.
** — repeat all-state performer at a different position.

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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.

Vosburgh guiding storied Pendleton Heights program

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

Matt Vosburgh is now the man in charge of Pendleton (Ind.) Heights High School baseball and he considers it a privilege.
Vosburgh enters his 11th year in the program in 2022. He has been Arabians head coach since before the 2020 season that was canceled because of COVID-19.
After graduating from Purdue University with a Social Studies Education degree in 2011 and taking a teaching job at Pendleton Heights Middle School, Vosburgh reached out to Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer and longtime PH head baseball coach Bill Stoudt.
“He told me to come on out and gave me all the opportunity in the world to be part of something special at Pendleton Heights,” says Vosburgh, a 2006 graduate of Tri-County Junior-Senior High School in White County town of Wolcott, Ind. “I wanted his blessing more than anything else. (Coach Stoudt) is still very much a part of the program. He cares more about the program than anybody else.”
Vosburgh, who was a junior varsity assistant in 2012, quickly saw Stoudt’s love for the game and his players. The school corporation returned the love by naming the place where the Arabians’ diamond Bill Stoudt Field.
From 2013-19, Vosburgh was head JV coach on the staff of Travis Keesling. He stepped away to watch his children in their sports and activities, but is still involved with the baseball program at his alma mater.
“He understands family priorities,” says Vosburgh of Keesling. “He told me, ‘I understand the rigors of being the head coach in this program. I’ll come out and mow (so you can spend time with family.
“People have no idea how hard he worked for the program. He did so many things behind the scenes.”
Vosburgh and wife of eight years, Claire, have three kids — kindergartener Elizabeth (5), pre-K student Evelyn (4) and David (2).
Matt Vosburgh is in his second year as eLearning specialist for South Madison Community School Corporation. He started at Purdue as a History major with a Pre-Law minor. A summer spent teaching English in rural Thailand ignited a passion for education and he changed his path.
“It opened my eyes,” says Vosburgh.
Right now his baseball vision has been focused on athletes participating in fall workouts. An IHSAA Limited Contact Period goes from Aug. 30-Oct. 16. The Arabians have been doing baseball activities two days a week and speed and agility work a third day.
“We’ve had good numbers so far,” says Vosburgh. “We don’t have a lot of fall athletes, but are getting 24 to 26. We expect that number to double at minimum in the spring.”
Beginning Sept. 9, Thursdays will be for a two-hour Green-White game with Tuesdays being for practice and another for speed and agility. After the Limited Contact Period ends, conditioning work will continue.
Vosburgh’s coaching staff includes first base/infield coach Rene Casas, pitching coach Brad Schnepp, JV coach Ryan Jones, Freshmen coach Eric Pierzchala plus Austin Price and Shane Cox.
Pendleton Heights (enrollment around 1,430) is a member of the Hoosier Heritage Conference (with Delta, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon of Fortville, New Castle, New Palestine, Shelbyville and Yorktown).
In 2021, the Arabians were part of an IHSAA Class 4A sectional grouping with Anderson, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon of Fortville, Muncie Central and Richmond. Pendleton Heights has won 17 sectional crowns — the last in 2018.
Pendleton Junior Baseball — with Todd Miller as president — helps prepare future PHHS players as does the Indiana Arabians travel team and other travel teams in the community.
“It’s a such a huge asset,” says Vosburgh. “Those people work really, really hard.
“Baseball is such an important part of Pendleton. People take a lot of pride in that.”
While no current Pendleton Heights players have made college baseball commitments, there are several recent graduates who have taken that route, including right-handed pitcher Chayce McDermott (2017 PHHS graduate who played at Ball State University and was selected in the 2021 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Houston Astros).
There’s also Arturo Casas (Manchester University), Rene Casas Jr. (Anderson University), Mitchell Cobb (Manchester University), Corbin Cox (Heartland Community College and University of Indianapolis), Evan Douglas (Ivy Tech Northeast), Wyatt Douglas (Ivy Tech Northeast and Taylor University), Kamden Earley (Wabash College), Jake Harris (Danville Area Community College), Philip Lawson (Anderson University), Maverik Mollemkopf (Manchester University), Ben Richards (Texas Post Grad), Eston Stull (Indiana University Kokomo and Southeastern University), Walker Stull (Anderson University), Matt Vetor (Hanover College) and C.J. Williams (Manchester University).
Vosburgh played two varsity season for coach Jeff LeBeau at Tri-County.
“He took as much pride in the field as anybody and instilled a work ethic and discipline,” says Vosburgh of LeBeau. “We had high standards and still had fun while we were playing.”

Matt Vosburgh (Cam Pippin Photography).

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

Atwood back as baseball coach for North Newton Spartans

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Mike Atwood knows about athletic toughness.

The 1981 graduate of Frankton (Ind.) Junior-Senior High School competed in football for Bob Sharnowski, wrestling for Otis Cress and baseball for Tom Urban — Atwood followed Dave Hicks as the Eagles starting catcher — before playing football for Pete Compise and baseball for Hall of Famer Dick Naylor at Hanover (Ind.) College and baseball for another multi-time Hall of Famer in Don Brandon at Anderson (Ind.) College (now Anderson University). Brent Brandon, Don’s son, was a Ravens teammate.

“(Sharnowski) taught us to just be tough,” says Atwood, who is now in his second stint as head baseball coach at North Newton Junior-Senior High School in Morocco, Ind., where he was an assistant then a head coach in the mid-1980’s to the late-1990’s and is now also athletic director and dean of students. “You have to be mentally tough in baseball. You’ve got to be ready at all times.”

Atwood calls Urban “a heckuva a baseball guy.”

“Basics were key to everything,” says Atwood, who experienced an intense coach in Naylor.

“He was a pretty hard-nosed little character,” says Atwood. “(Brandon) was all of the kids.”

Between coaching assignments at North Newton, Atwood was an assistant baseball coach on the staff of Mike Moyzis at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind. Current Hebron (Ind.) High School head coach and athletic director John Steinhilber was also on the Pumas staff.

Rick O’Dette, who would be Saint Joseph’s head coach for 17 seasons until the school closed at the end of the 2017 season, was an SJC player at the time.

Atwood’s 1997 North Newton baseball club won a Kankakee Valley Sectional title in the last year of the IHSAA single-class era before bowing to Chesterton in the semifinals of the LaPorte Regional.

He then went to Delphi (Ind.) Community High School and was the Oracles head coach for baseball and wrestling.

The 2020-21 school year is Atwood’s second back at North Newton, where he is now athletic director. The COVID-19 pandemic kept him from coaching the Spartans in the spring 2020. If the weather cooperates, North Newton could open the season Thursday, April 1 against Hebron. The team is slated to visit Harrison in West Lafayette Saturday, April 3.

With 24 players in the program, the Spartans will field varsity and junior varsity teams, playing home games on the campus located at the school.

Serving students in the towns of Lake Village, Mount Ayr, Roselawn, Sumava Resorts, Thayer and Morocco, North Newton (enrollment around 350) is a member of the Midwest Athletic Conference (with Frontier, North White, South Newton, Tri-County and West Central).

MAC teams meet twice, typically on Tuesdays and Thursdays in home-and-home series.

The Spartans are part of an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping with Boone Grove, Hebron (the 2021 host), North Judson-San Pierre, Rensselaer Central and Winamac. North Newton has won 12 sectional titles — the last in 2019.

Other teams on the Spartans’ schedule include Andrean, Calumet New Tech, Hammond Academy of Science and Technology, Kankakee Valley, Lake Station Edison, Lowell, Morgan Township, Twin Lakes and Washington Township.

The high school program is fed by youth baseball in Morocco and Roselawn. 

Atwood’s 2021 assistants are Doug Belt (varsity) and Eric Jones (JV). 

Kyler Rainford, a 2020 North Newton graduate, is on the baseball team at Lincoln Trail College in Robinson, Ill.

Morocco has ties to Cooperstown. Native son Sam Rice played in the majors 1915-33 and collected 2,987 hits as a .322 lifetime hitter. He was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1963. A roadside historical marker was placed in town in 2019.

Mike Atwood has three adult children — Michael (32), Brittney (30) and Braden (29).

Michael is in the U.S. Army serving in Kuwait. Britney works as a technician at a Lafayette, Ind., hospital. 

Braden Atwood was a three-time placer at the IHSAA State Finals (fourth as a sophomore, fifth as a junior and second as a senior) at Delphi and went on to a be a four-time placer and NCAA Championship qualifier as well as a three-time team champion at Purdue University. He took part in the U.S. Team Trials and was later a volunteer assistant coach at West Point (Army). He is married and living in Connecticut and has a daughter.

Mike Atwood and his son’s dog Bella.

DePauw graduate Quinn takes over at Clinton Central

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Andrew Quinn is bringing his baseball knowledge and enthusiasm in Michigantown, Ind., as the new head baseball coach at Clinton Central Junior-Senior High School.

Quinn, who turns 26 in December, was a right-handed pitcher at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., for four years (2014-17) and an assistant coach at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., for two seasons (2019 and 2020). 

He is also a lead instructor at RoundTripper Sports Academy in Westfield, Ind., where he gives pitching and hitting lessons and will coach at 14U Indiana Mustangs travel team next summer.

The IHSAA Limited Contact Period for baseball ended Oct. 17. Quinn worked with a few players each Friday, showing them the fundamentals of playing catch and giving them a chance to field ground balls.

Many players were not available since they were involved in football or others were getting ready for basketball season. The dead period lasts until Dec. 7.

Jeff Pittard, the father of Quinn’s former DePauw teammate, Reid Pittard, has committed as a part-time assistant. Other coaching candidates are being considered.

Quinn says he gets a sense that the Bulldogs will be a senior-heavy team in 2021. Among that group of left-handed pitcher J.T. Holton, an Indiana University Kokomo commit.

The new coach recently reached out to youth leagues in Michigantown and Kirkland to build a relationship with future Clinton Central players.

A full-time substitute teacher at the school, Quinn is looking into getting his transition to teaching license. He earned his DePauw bachelor’s degree in Communications. He also holds a personal trainer certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

A native of Chesterfield, Mo., Quinn played at St. Louis (Mo.) University High, where he was an all-state pitcher as a senior in 2013.

Quinn was brought to DePauw by then-DePauw head coach Jake Martin (head coach at his alma mater, Wabash, since the 2017 season).

“Coach Martin drove all the way from Greencastle to St. Louis to take me and my parents to dinner and drove back in the same day,” says Quinn. “He obviously cared a lot about me and his program.

“He made it very clear about how he wanted to do things.”

As a DePauw Tiger, Quinn took the mound 48 times (24 as a starter). He was honorable mental all-North Coast Athletic Conference as a junior and second team all-NCAC as a senior while also serving as team captain. 

During his four years (the last three playing for head coach Blake Allen), DePauw made the NCAA Division III tournament twice and posted the most victories in a four-year record (98) in the history of the program which dates back more than a century.

Allen is a St. Louis native, which helped Quinn relate to the coach.

“He’s super, super passionate,” says Quinn of Allen. “He knows his stuff.”

Allen spent two stints covering five years at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., where he learned from highly-respected Commodores head coach Tim Corbin.

“(Allen) got the best out of everybody on the team,” says Quinn. “He was really good at understanding the mental side and getting us to lock into that.”

Allen had DePauw hitters in an attacking mindset and Mike Hammel and Jack Thompson both set the school record for home runs in a single-season at 13 in 2017. The ’17 Tigers hit 46 bombs as a team.

As a college freshman, Quinn took a Baseball History class. He is familiar with the old Polo Grounds in New York, where the dimensions were short down the foul lines and deep to center. He looks at the Clinton Central field and is reminded of that image.

“Our center fielder has to be very quick,” says Quinn. “He’ll have a cover a lot of ground.”

He’ll be asking his pitchers to throw a lot of strikes, keep the pitch count down and work to all parts of the strike zone.

Quinn also plans to take a page out of Hall of Famer Bob Gibson’s book.

“Gibson said that with every pitch, act like you meant it to go there,” says Quinn. “Don’t get frustrated. Get the ball back and get ready for that next pitch.”

Clinton Central is part of the Hoosier Heartland Conference (with Carroll of Flora, Clinton Prairie, Delphi, Eastern of Greentown, Rossville, Sheridan, Taylor and Tri-Central).

HHC teams play each other twice with many home-and-home weekdays series.

The Bulldogs are part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping with Frontier, Rossville, Sheridan, South Newton and Tri-County. Clinton Central won its lone sectional title in 2005.

Quinn is engaged to DePauw graduate Emily Matthews, who went through the excellerated nursing program at Marian University in Indianapolis. The couple’s wedding is slated for September 2021.

Andrew Quinn, a DePauw University graduate, has been hired as head baseball coach at Clinton Central Junior-Senior High School in Michigantown, Ind. After playing four seasons at DePauw, he was an assistant coach for two years at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., and is a lead instructor at RoundTripper Sports Academy in Westfield, Ind., and is a 14U travel coach for the Indiana Mustangs. (Wabash College Photo)

Twin Lakes’ Burton has been coaching with discipline for four decades

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Jake Burton has not changed the way he coaches much in more than four decades of leading high school baseball programs in Indiana.

Modeling his style after men like LaPorte’s Ken Schreiber and Lafayette Jeff’s Paul “Spider” Fields, Burton decided discipline would be the cornerstone of his teams.

“We’re demanding,” says Burton, who is in his 41st season of doing things his way — third at Twin Lakes High School in Monticello in 2019 after 37 at McCutcheon (1979-2015) in Lafayette and one at North Newton (2016) in Morocco. “The kid has to make sacrifices. We don’t allow long hair. It has to be an inch above the collar and off the ear.

“If they miss a practice unexcused, it’s a 20-mile run. You don’t play again until you get done.”

Burton hasn’t wavered from that approach since his first game in 1979.

“People say that’s crazy, but we’ve eliminated problems because kids don’t take a chance,” says Burton. “They don’t test you on those things. They know we mean business. We’ve not changed that.

“Not that these things make the program, but they establish a culture for the program.”

With 849 career wins coming into this week, Burton is second among active high school baseball coaches in Indiana (behind Andrean’s Dave Pishkur). He was inducted into the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1998 and became just the fourth Indiana prep baseball coach to do into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2016.

Twin Lakes (enrollment around 820) is a member of the Hoosier Athletic Conference (with Twin Lakes, Benton Central, Lafayette Central Catholic, Rensselaer Central and West Lafayette in the West Division and Hamilton Heights, Lewis Cass, Northwestern, Tipton and Western in the East Division).

A two-game home-and-home series on consecutive nights is played within the division. Crossover games are then played with corresponding seeds in each division — 1 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2 and son on.

The Indians opened the 2019 season with a trip to Tennessee, where they met Halls, West Carroll and Tipton-Rosemark Academy (2018 Tennessee state runner-up among private schools).

“It was a good experience for us,” says Burton.

A year ago, a team rule was made that players could be away at the beginning of spring break through Tuesday and had to be back on Wednesday in order to travel to Tennessee and be ready to open the conference season against Lafayette Central Catholic.

Other non-conference opponents include Crawfordsville, Delphi, Eastern (Greentown), Frontier, Kankakee Valley, Lafayette Jeff, Maconaquah, McCutcheon, North Newton, North White and Tri-County.

The Indians are part of an IHSAA Class 3A sectional grouping with Andrean, Hanover Central, Kankakee Valley, Knox and Wheeler. Twin Lakes has won 12 sectional titles — the last in 1993.

Twin Lakes was off to an 11-5 start in 2019, including 5-1 in the HAC.

“I think we’ve turned the corner a little bit,” says Burton. “We are winning games that we should win and competing well in all our games except for a couple.

“The kids seem to be confident that they can win. When I first got here that didn’t exist.”

Burton started out with 32 players in the program his first year and had 18 in the second season after some weeding out.

“They weren’t here for the real reason you play baseball,” says Burton. “You play sports to get better at it and enjoy the camaraderie, but also enjoy the competition.

“They were doing it as if it was just something to do rather than something they wanted to do.”

Retired as a school administrator, when he’s not serving as a substitute at Twin Lakes, Burton likes to play golf or pickleball before coming to the school.

Pickleball is a paddle-and-ball game similar to tennis played to 11. When he and his partner got down 10-1, the partner started talking about asking their opponent for a rematch. Burton wasn’t willing to concede defeat. He knew the game wasn’t over until one team got to 11.

Burton recalls a day in1984 at McCutcheon when his team was down 10-2 in the first game of a doubleheader.

The coach began pulling out his starters and telling them to get something to eat and be back for the second game.

Meanwhile, the subs started hitting doubles and singles and — all of a sudden — in was 10-10. The Mavericks went on to win.

“Baseball is a unique game,” says Burton. “There is no clock and that’s the neatest thing about it.”

There are 22 players for varsity and junior varsity in 2019 and the number is expected to rise.

“We’re building it back up,” says Burton, who had five seniors in 2017, three in 2018 and has four in 2019 (Zion Cosgray, Brock Deno, Graham Howe and Ethan Luzadder). The Indians have nine freshmen.

Burton is assisted by Brian Driver, Mike Hirt, Sam McVady, Jeremy Stinson and Trent Wright.

Pitching coach Driver played for Burton at McCutcheon in the early 1990’s and has coached with Burton at McCutcheon, North Newton and Twin Lakes. Wright serves as the first base coach. Hirt, McVady and Stinson are JV coaches. McVady played for Burton at Twin Lakes.

Since arriving, Burton has watched the Indians’ home field get a new drainage system. A new outfield was installed and leveled.

“We really take care of the field,” says Burton. “We make sure it’s immaculate and things are put away each night.

“We just take a little pride. You can play on a good field and get nice, new uniforms and kids start to feel a little bit better about themselves. It’s something that’s contagious and it spreads and we play a little bit better.”

Monticello Youth Baseball League — a part of the Town & Country system — develops players that will eventually get a chance to wear Twin Lakes uniforms.

Burton says the change from a single class to class sports is the biggest change he’s witnessed in his time coaching baseball in Indiana.

“I never was in favor of class baseball,” says Burton. “I liked it when you had one true champion.”

When McCutcheon was a state runner-up during the one-class system in 1994 it meant as much to Burton as when the Mavericks won 4A state titles in 1999 and 2003.

The 1994 state championship game was won 4-3 by Penn, coached by IHSBCA Hall of Famer Greg Dikos.

“That game hinged on one play in the top of the seventh,” says Burton. “We got our 2-hole and or 3-hole hitter on and our clean-up guy, Preny Rodgriguez had just hit one off the wall the last time up.

“We were down 4-2. Do we bunt here? I let him swing away and he hits into a double play. The next batter get a base hit to make it one run but we don’t get two.

“That’s just a decision a coach makes. It happens all the time.”

Burton was a Purdue University student at a time when Indiana coaching legends were still on the scene.

“Things have changed. Ken Schreiber, Jim Reinebold, Bill Jones, Paul “Spider” Fields — they set the tone on how baseball should be coached and played. I was lucky enough to be young enough to be going through college and seeing that.

“You don’t see that anymore. You don’t see people putting in the time like that.”

Burton’s teams have held the No. 1 statewide ranking four times and knocked off No. 1 on 10 occasions. His squads have been state ranked in 33 of his first 40 seasons.

He has coached 23 Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association North/South All-Star Series selections and a pair of Indiana Mr. Baseballs — Clayton Richard (2003) and Logan Sowers (2014).

Six former players were selected in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, including big leaguers Richard in 2005 and Nick Wittgren in 2009.

Burton has had 84 players play college baseball (10 are still active) with 10 first-team all-staters and 150 all-conference selections.

He’s sent former assistants/players have gone on to become high school coaches in Indiana.

Burton was chosen Indiana Coach of the Year in 1999 and 2003 and was runner-up in the balloting in 1994. He has been a conference coach of the year 13 times and a regional coach of the year eight times.

He has amassed 15 conference championships, 11 sectional title, five regional crowns and twice claimed semistate hardware.

In Burton’s one season at North Newton, the Spartans went 20-9 and won the program’s first conference championship in 26 years.

Jake and Brenda Burton have been married 47 years and have three children — Mike, R.J. and Beth — and seven grandchildren. Teacher Mike (Class of 1993) and project engineer R.J. (1995) played baseball at McCutcheon for their father. Teacher Beth in a 1999 McCutcheon graduate. Jake is currently a Tippecanoe School Corporation board member.

Jake Burton is in his third season as a high school baseball head coach in Indiana in 2019. It’s his third season at Twin Lakes High School in Monticello.

 

Kiifner wants South Newton Rebels to be strong up the middle

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

A border town will play more baseball in 2019 on the side of the state line where it plays its home games.

South Newton High School, located in rural Newton County, Ind., between the incorporated towns of Kentland, Brook and Goodland, went 17-10 in 2018 and played 15 games against Illinois high schools.

After three seasons in the Illinois-based Sangamon Valley Conference (current members are Cissna Park, Clifton Central, Dwight, Iroquois West, Momence, Paxton-Buckey-Loda and Watseka), South Newton (enrollment around 190) is a member of the Midwest Conference (with Indiana schools Frontier, North Newton, North White, Tri-County and West Central).

Jim Kiifner, a 1984 graduate of Sheldon (Ill.) High School (now consulted into Milford Township), is entering his 10th season on the South Newton coaching staff — his third as head coach.

The 2019 Rebels — led by Kiifner and assistants Jason Krug (third season), Ricky Montemayer (fourth season) and Conner Ulmer (first season) — are scheduled to play 23 varsity and 13 junior varsity contests. Ulmer, a 2013 South Newton graduate, is a teacher while the others are lay coaches. Kiifner works in a warehouse for DuPont Corporation.

“My boss allows me to be a little flexible,” says Kiifner. “It also helps that I work in the Eastern Time Zone and coach in the Central Time Zone.

“I gain an hour.”

South Newon’s non-conference varsity opponents include Attica, Benton Central, Fountain Central, Frontier, Kankakee Valley and Seeger in Indiana and Cissna Park, Milford Township, Momence and Watseka in Illinois.

The Rebels are part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping with Caston, North Miami, North White, Northfield, Southwood and West Central. South Newton has won eight sectional titles — the last in 2017. That year, the Rebels advanced to the semistate for the first time, losing to eventual state runner-up Rossville at Plymouth.

“We’ve been pretty successful the last four years,” says Kiifner, 52. “We get a lot of fan support.”

Athletic budgets at the small school are supplemented through community fundraisers.

Kiifner was coaching in the Travelers Babe Ruth League when then-South Newton head coach Ron Benakovich invited him to join his staff. Benakovich led the Rebels from 2009-12 and Glenn Donahue from 2013-16 before Kiifner took over the as leader of the program in 2017.

“I want the kids to have the most fun as possible,” says Kiifner. “Discipline is a big thing. But I don’t like to be a brow beater.”

Program numbers are up to 23 with 11 newcomers.

“We’re working to get them up to speed on what we expect and do,” says Kiifner, who had a veteran team the past two seasons. The 2018 squad had six seniors and three juniors in the starting lineup.

Kiifner says he wants his teams to be strong up the middle on defense.

“Defend the middle first and work your way out,” says Kiifner. “(Pitchers are asked to) throw strikes and let the defense do the work behind them.”

With that in mind, South Newton has junior Austin Miller and sophomore Brandon Gilliam in the mix at catcher, senior Levi Sample and freshman Kayden Cruz at shortstop and Cruz and junior Terron Welsh in center field.

Senior left-hander Riley Patterson is the top returning pitcher who also plays first base. Senior Tyler Martell is at second base and freshman Kellen Krug at third base. Senior Ben Bryant is a candidate to play a corner outfield spot.

Offensive approach depends on personnel. Kiifner says the Rebels are transitioning from a power team to more of a small-ball squad.

The Hammel brothers have taken their pitching talents from South Newton to the college level.

Junior left-hander Jarrett Hammel started at Saint Joseph’s College and is now at Valparaiso University.

Freshman Jay Hammel was an all-state third baseman as junior, all-state first baseman as a senior and became the school’s second Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association North/South All-Star Series player (Trent Smith was the first in 1990) and is now a freshman right-hander at Quincy (Ill.) University.

Trent Smith is the brother of Tracy Smith, a South Newton graduate who played at Miami University in Ohio and in the Chicago Cubs system before head coaching assignments at Miami University-Hamilton, Indiana University and Arizona State University. Smith’s 2019 Sun Devils were off to a 22-1 start.

Rebel Field, located on the South Newton campus, is a small non-lighted diamond with the distance down the foul lines at 272 feet to right field and 300 to left. Kiifner says there is talk about moving the fences back in the future.

With the school and field sitting in the midst of farm land, it is a breezy place.

“The are winds always blowing,” says Kiifner. “And it’s either too hot or too cold.”

Sheldon was a school of less than 100 students and baseball was a fall sport where there was no football team. Kiifner’s baseball coach was John Spezia, who has gone on to win more than 500 games as a basketball coach.

“He broke down fundamentals really well and brought it to your level,” says Kiifner of Spezia. “He tried not to overwhelm (his players).”

Jim and Madonna Kiifner have been married for 26 years. They have two sons who both played baseball at South Newton — William (24) and Luke (22).

This is the 2019 South Newton High School Rebels baseball team.

South Newton won a sectional and regional baseball title in 2017.

Jim Kiifner is the head baseball coach at South Newton High School in rural Newton County, Ind., between the incorporated towns of Kentland, Brook and Goodland.

 

Foxworthy, Seeger Patriots value being a good teammate

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

In his capacity as head baseball coach at Seeger Memorial Junior/Senior High School in West Lebanon, Ind., Reed Foxworthy wants his players to know that they’re all in it together.

“One of our big things is always be a good teammate,” says Foxworthy, who heads into his fourth season of leading the Patriots in 2019. “That covers a lot of stuff like getting your schoolwork done and making sure you’re eligible, being prepared and giving it your best effort.”

Foxworthy, a 2008 Seeger graduate who spent three seasons as junior varsity coach before taking over the program, also emphasizes the importance of having a good attitude.

“Focus your energy on things you can control,” says Foxworthy. “Don’t worry about what you can’t control.

“Hopefully, that carries on to life and whatever they do after baseball.”

Foxworthy graduated from Purdue University in 2012 with a degree in social studies education. He now teaches math to seventh graders and psychology and sociology to high schoolers at Seeger, which is located in Warren County and 15 miles east of the Indiana-Illinois state line.

When he was a high school student, Foxworthy played baseball for head coaches Doug Allison and Brent Rademacher and basketball for head coach Brad Metzger.

Foxworthy credits Allison and Rademacher for running well-organized practices.

“We had something to do,” says Foxworthy. “There was never down time. I try to carry that over. That’s important to us.”

Those coaches also instilled characteristics that Foxworthy wants from his players.

“We were always doing things the right way, being on time and respectful toward officials,” says Foxworthy. “We tried to control what we could control.”

Foxworthy remembers Metzger as a stickler for details.

“The little things add up,” says Foxworthy.

Seeger (enrollment around 390) is a member of the Wabash River Conference (with Attica, Covington, Fountain Central, North Vermillion, Parke Heritage, Riverton Parke and South Vermillion).

WRC teams play each other twice to determine a conference champion. These games are played either as a weekday home-and-home series or in a Saturday doubleheader.

Non-conference opponents for the Patriots include Benton Central, Bismarck-Henning (Bismarck, Ill.), Clinton Prairie, Faith Christian (Lafayette), Frontier, North Montgomery, Oakwood (Fithian, Ill.), Southmont, South Newton and Tri-County.

There has been talk about having Seeger play Cascade, where Cadets head coach Ty Foster is Foxworthy’s cousin. But the two schools are 85 miles apart.

The Patriots are part of an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping with Carroll (Flora), Clinton Prairie, Delphi, Lafayette Central Catholic and Western Boone. Seeger has won five sectional titles — the last two in 2012 and 2015.

Foxworthy’s assistants are Dale Carroll, Avery Acton and Andy Stover. There are usually around 20 players for varsity and junior varsity squads.

“We’d like to have a few more,” says Foxworthy, who has played with 11 varsity players and sent nine to a JV game on the same night.

Home games are played on-campus on a diamond that in recent years has gained a new batting cage and bleachers and had its infield, mound, home plate and base areas re-done.

During the IHSAA limited contact periods since the end of the football season, baseball players — many of whom are also basketball players or wrestlers — have met on Thursday mornings. As the season approaches, workouts have been on Tuesday nights.

Taking advantage of auxiliary gym space, the Patriots have been able to pull down two indoor batting tunnels and have enough room for long toss.

“Not every school around here has this,” says Foxworthy. “It’s pretty nice.”

A junior high club team of seventh and eighth graders played in the spring. In the summer, those same kids take part in the Wabash Valley Summer Baseball League.

Players also play with various travel baseball organizations, including those around Crawfordsville, Indianapolis and Danville, Ill.

Reed and wife Madison Foxworthy do not have children.

Reed Foxworthy is head baseball coach at Seeger Memorial Junior/Senior High School in West Lebanon, Ind. He is a 2008 Seeger graduate.

 

Grid, mat lend toughness to diamond for Quasebarth’s North White Vikings

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Baseball players at North White Middle/High School in Monon, Ind., know something about toughness.

Many of the young men who take to the diamond for the Vikings also participate in football, wrestling or both.

“Wrestling brings a work ethic,” says Kirk Quasebarth, who coaches baseball, wrestling and football at the IHSAA Class 1A school of about 250. “You’ve got to be out there ready to go and be mentally tough. You also see that on the football field.

“You’ll see baseball players take a ball off the chest — those little intangibles.”

Quasebarth participated in all three sports at North White, playing football and wrestling for head coach Jim Davis and baseball for head coach Bill McDonald. He then played three seasons for head coach Bill Reagan at Saint Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind., and got his education degree at Purdue University.

What did Quasebarth learn from Indiana Football Hall of Famer Davis?

“Patience, seeing the big picture and planning,” says Quasebarth. “He was good at keeping things simple for kids.”

Like Davis, Quasebarth plans his baseball practices to eliminate dead time.

“Kids always working on skills,” says Quasebarth. “The goal for every practice is to get something out of it.”

McDonald was known for his enthusiasm for the game.

“We had fun,” says Quasebarth. “That gets lost sometimes in high school athletics.

“It’s about kids growing up, taking responsibility and having fun.”

Since 1999, Quasebarth has been the school’s head baseball coach. Eight of the program’s eight sectional titles have come on his watch. The last one came in 2016. The Vikings advanced to the 2013 South Bend Semistate before bowing to eventual state champion Lafayette Central Catholic.

Quasebarth has led North White’s football program the past two seasons. He took over as interim head wrestling coach midway through the 2018-19 season. Six of the 10 grapplers on the squad qualified for the Logansport Regional, including baseball players Colton Jones and Parker Smith (alternate).

Quasebarth has held principal and vice principal jobs and is now back in the class room teaching social studies to seventh and eighth graders.

Youngest son Eli, a seventh grader, is also involved in football, wrestling and baseball.

While numbers have not been high for football and wrestling in recent years, Quasebarth usually sees between 20 and 25 baseball players yearly to fill varsity and junior varsity teams.

All three of his baseball assistants are North White graduates. Tony Rodgers and Brad Hahn played with Quasebarth and Travis Combs played for him.

“We’re a family,” says Quasebarth.

North White (enrollment around 250) is a member of the Midwest Conference (with Frontier, North Newton, South Newton, Tri-County and West Central). This spring, teams will play each other twice in a home-and-home series on Tuesdays and Thursdays and both games will count in the standings.

The Vikings are part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping with Caston, North Miami, Northfield, South Newton, Southwood and West Central.

Quasebarth says he recalls the challenges his teams faced against teams coached by Ryan Wolfe at West Central, Ryan Long at Frontier, Blake Mollenkopf at Caston and Jeff LeBeau at Tri-County. Wolfe is now at Plymouth and Long at Delphi.

“You have to be up on your game to play those guys,” says Quasebarth. “They are very fundamentally sound. I have a lot of respect for those guys.

“Now we get to play (Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer) Jake Burton and his Twin Lakes teams.”

The North White Babe Ruth League in Monon prepares ages 13 to 15 to play for the high school. Tyler Hileman, who is married to Kirk and Sherie Quasebarth’s daughter Whitney (a North White Elementary first grade teacher) and given them grandson Emmett, heads up the league.

North White Babe Ruth coaches include Jakob Quasebarth (who also plays football at Rose-Hulman in Terre Haute) and former members of the 2013 North White regional champions — Colton Cooley, Luke Diener and twins Clint and Caleb Hendress. Caleb Hendress played baseball at Saint Joseph’s before the school closed at the end of the 2016-17 school year.

A number of North White players have gone on to college baseball in the past decade. Current senior Grant Buschman is committed to Grace College.

Around 2000, North White opened a complex for baseball and softball.

“We constantly try to do a few things,” says Quasebarth of the baseball field. “We want to raise money for a halo (around home plate).”

For the past several seasons, the Vikings wore camouflage-style uniforms in school colors — Royal Blue, White and Gold. This spring, the plan is to go with a Houston Astros-like “Rainbow” design.

North White has been rotating its winter workouts in the North White Elementary gym with pitchers on one day and hitters on another.

The Quasebarths at a Rose-Hulman football game (from left): Sherie, Jacob, Eli and Kirk.

Interim head coach Kirk Quasebarth poses with his North White Vikings wrestling team.

Head coach Kirk Quasebarth posed with his North White Vikings football team.

Head coach Kirk Quasebarth and his North White Vikings baseball team celebrate a sectional championship.

Kirk Quasebarth is head football coach at North White Middle/High School in Monon, Ind. His first season at the helm for the Vikings was 2017.

Kirk Quasebarth (left) has been the head baseball coach at North White Middle/High School in Monon, Ind., since 1999.