New head coach Blocker seeks ‘efficient’ Southwood Knights

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

Cory Blocker moves up from varsity assistant to head baseball coach at Southwood Junior/Senior High School in Wabash, Ind., in 2022-23.
Borrowing a motto from another coach, Blocker wants the Knights to be “efficient.”
“In practice drills, we’re not standing around but getting plenty of swings and taking game-like reps,” says Blocker, who wants to see efficiency in the field, on the mound and in the batter’s box.
Southwood left 6.6 runners on base per game and committed 88 fielding errors in going 5-17-1 in 2022.
“We want to make the plays behind our pitchers,” says Blocker. “We want to have an (offensive) approach and understand our job each time we go to the plate. We’ll try to put ourselves in the best position to achieve that job.”
If the Knights have a runner on first base, the job will entail moving them at least to second base.
“We want to make (opposing) pitchers work and make every out count,” says Blocker, who wants to see his hitters make contact and increase their batting average on balls in play.
Pitching efficiency includes mechanics, throwing strikes and liming walks.
Among Southwood returnees for 2023 is senior catcher Mo Lloyd, who hit .452 with 12 home runs and 40 runs batted in for 2002 and hitting .480 with 13 homers and 51 RBIs for a 22-7 team in 2021.
Besides Blocker, the coaching staff features returnees Danny Lloyd and Christian Deeter and newcomers in pitching coach Kyle Zerfas and junior varsity coach Tanner Chamberlain.
There were about 25 players in the program — varsity and JV — in 2022.
Blocker is in his eighth year as a Southwood teacher. He instructs sixth grade math and is at the junior/high school building for the first time in 2022-23.
He has been a baseball and football assistant for seven years. This fall, he was the special teams coordinator and running backs coach. The 2022 Southwood football team went 7-3.
Because of when Blocker was named head coach and his football duties, there were no IHSAA Limited Contact Period activities in the fall.
The Knights play home games on-campus on a facility sometimes called “The Launching Pad” for its cozy dimensions. Blocker says its about 280 feet down the foul lines.
Wabash Little League serves Wabash County and feeds players to Southwood, Manchester, Northfield and Wabash high schools.
Southwood (enrollment around 250) is a member of the Three Rivers Conference (with Maconaquah, Manchester, Northfield, North Miami, Peru, Rochester, Tippecanoe Valley, Wabash and Whitko).
In recent seasons, TRC teams met each other once during the season. There is no conference tournament.
The Knights part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping in 2023 with Caston, North Miami, North White, Northfield and West Central. Southwood has won five sectional titles — the last in 2021.
A 2009 graduate of Huntington (Ind.) North High School, Blocker played four years of football, three of baseball and two of basketball. His head coaches were Rief Gilg (the Vikings went 8-3 in 2008, Blocker’s senior year on the gridiron), Russ Degitz and Eric Foister.
“A lot of our time in baseball was spent with the little details,” says Blocker of Degitz. “He was a big fundamental guy.
“They were all coaches that were hard on you but cared about you at the same time and made sure that was relayed in everything they did.”
Blocker spent two years at Purdue University and four at Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne, graduating in 2015.
Cory and Brittany Blocker have been married five years. The couple resides in Wabash and has three children — daughter Wrenley (3), son Wesley (1 1/2) and daughter Willow (almost eight months).

Cory Blocker. (Frederick’s Photography)

Cory and Brittany Blocker with children (from left): Wrenley, Wesley and Willow.

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New coach Sailors, Elwood Panthers getting ‘back to basics’

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

Grant Sailors grew up playing baseball a certain way and he is looking to bring those things into his job as head coach at Elwood (Ind.) Community Junior/Senior High School.
Hired less than a month ago to lead the Panthers program, the former three-sport athlete at Wabash (Ind.) High School wants the Panthers to “get back to basics.”
“It’s the little stuff,” says Sailors, who played football and basketball and was a first-team all-stater in baseball (Matt Stone was head coach) for the Apaches and graduated in 2014 with a brief baseball stint at the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne. “To me a big thing is how you appear to your coaches, the other team, your fans.
“Your jersey is tucked in. Your belt is on. You’re wearing your hat right. It’s little baseball traditions people may not take seriously.
“We want to respect the game of baseball. The program I grew up in taught me very well. We want to teach that to the kids in Elwood.
“It is a rebuilding process. It is going to take a little time and a whole lot of effort.”
Elwood (enrollment around 430) is a member of the Central Indiana Athletic Conference (with Alexandra-Monroe, Blackford, Eastbrook, Frankton, Madison-Grant, Mississinewa and Oak Hill).
The Panthers were part of an IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping in 2022 with Alexandria-Monroe, Frankton, Lapel, Monroe Central, Muncie Burris, Wapahani and Winchester Community. Elwood has won eight sectional titles — the last in 2014.
Sailors, who helped with Wabash boys basketball a few years ago and Elwood softball in the spring of 2022, has been running twice-a-week open fields for Panthers baseball.
He also emphasizes being on-time and the hustle factor.
“Go out there and give it your all,” says Sailors, who has played with the USA Softball national fastpitch team. “It doesn’t take talent to hustle. These are things that I grew up doing.”
Sailors played from age 4 to 12 at Wabash Little League then spent the next few years in the town’s Babe Ruth program.
“There was a certain standard for baseball in the town of Wabash,” says Sailors. “Everybody wanted to be a part of the baseball team.
“One goal for me and our new athletic director (Ryan Vanskyock) is it to get (Elwood’s Harry Bridges) Little League built back up so kids want to come and play.”
That includes coaches clinics so they can see how Sailors teaches the game.
Elwood has a junior high baseball for seventh and eighth graders.
Sailors has named four of his assistant coaches — Jamie Jetty, Jack Bennett, Devan Frank and Chris Noone. Bennett, who played baseball at Goshen (Ind.) College), and long-time coach Noone are from Elwood.
Former prep volleyball, basketball and softball athlete Taylor Noone (Elwood Class of 2016) is Sailors’ girlfriend.
The Panthers play and practice on-campus. Money is being raised for renovations. Sailors says it is hoped that Elwood will someday have lights for baseball and softball.
When not coaching, Sailors works in kitchen modeling and does woodworking on the side.
He is the son of Jason (Kerri) Sailors and Betina Hill. He has three siblings — older younger Zach Sailors (Wabash Class of 2010), younger sister Jillian Sailors (Wabash Class of 2025) and younger brother Jake Sailors. Zach played baseball at Wabash and for four years at Indiana Tech. Jillian has been a travel volleyball player. Jake has been involved in football, basketball and baseball.

New Elwood Community Junior/Senior High School head baseball coach Grant Sailors and Taylor Noone.

New Elwood Community Junior/Senior High School head baseball coach Grant Sailors and Taylor Noone.

Grant Sailors at Wabash (Ind.) High School.

Holley teaching life lessons with Wabash Apaches

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

Jack Holley Jr. played baseball at Wabash (Ind.) High School and was on the state championship team coached by Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Chris Rood.
Holley was a sophomore when the Apaches won the title in 1986. Tom Dempsey struck out 12 as Wabash beat Marion 2-1. Jeff Wagner and Brent Johnson (game-winning double) drove in one run each in the top of the seventh inning. The first run was scored by future big leaguer Keith Shepherd and the decisive tally by pinch-runner Holley.
Years later, Holley talks about the life lessons he learned from Rood and about leading the program today.
“(Coach Rood) taught you so much baseball and more things outside the game than most people realize,” says Holley, who joined the baseball staff at his alma mater in the early 2000’s and has been head coach since the 2015 season. “It’s the discipline he instilled in me and his expectations of your as a player, student and a man. These are the things I try to utilize.
“When you’re 16, 17, 18 years old you don’t realize the lessons you’re learning from any high school sport. Winning games is nice. I want effect men in a positive way and that’s probably more important.”
Wabash (enrollment around 470) is a member of the Three Rivers Conference (with Maconaquah, Manchester, Northfield, North Miami, Peru, Rochester, Southwood, Tippecanoe Valley and Whitko).
TRC play each other once and games on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
In 2021, the Apaches was host of IHSAA Class 2A sectional grouping with Carroll (Flora), Lewis Cass, Manchester, Rochester and Whitko. Wabash has won 10 sectional titles — the last in 2019 when the team went 18-7.
Holley says the Apaches would have had 11 seniors for the 2020 season lost to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two members of that class — outfielder/right-handed pitcher Jared Holley (Manchester University after transferring from Kankakee Community College) and catcher/outfielder Kallen Kelsheimer (Huntington University) — are on college baseball teams.
Holley says three current Wabash players — seniors middle infielder/outfielder Jared Brooks and first baseman/right-hander Chayden Beeks and junior right-hander/catcher Andrew Dillon — have been drawing collegiate interest.
Brooks is all the school’s all-time leader in wrestling victories. Holley sees Dillon as his probable No. 1 mound starter in 2022. Other seniors include Colten Learned and Blake Smith.
The Apaches went 15-14 in 2021, making Holley’s career mark 87-76-1.
The 2022 coaching staff includes Kyle Kelsheimer (Kallen’s brother) as varsity assistant, Luke Helton as pitching coach, Nick Hentgen as junior varsity head coach and Andy Castro, Jordan Holley, Chandler Jones, Kent Montgomery and Shane Smith.
Kelsheimer and Helton are teacher at Wabash. Helton is a Tippecanoe Valley graduate who played at Manchester U. All the rest are played for the Apaches.
Justin Holley coaches the Wabash Middle School team. Started when Matt Stone was varsity head coach, the feeder team helps with the gap between Wabash Little League (T-ball through age 12) and high school.
“It’s an awesome addition to our baseball program,” says Holley. “(Junior high players) get accustomed to what we teach. It’s a way to retain those kids and keep them interested in (baseball).
“We were losing some of those kids. They’d go out for track and we’d never get them back.”
There are typically 20 to 25 players — Grades 6-8 — who play 12 to 16 games in the spring. Middle school practices and games are at Chris Rood Field.
“They usually practice before or after (the high school),” says Holley. “Someone from the varsity or JV staff can help them. They get to know us.”
There is a junior/senior league serving all of Wabash County. Middle schoolers used to practice and play on that field.
“There was a disconnect with middle school teams to our program,” says Holley.
Jack Holley Jr. is in his 21st year as a Welding Technology teacher at Heartland Career Center in Wabash. He and wife of 29 years on Feb. 20, Misti, have four sons — Jack III (29), Justin (27), Jordan (24) and Jared (20). All four boys played baseball at Wabash. Jack and Jordan are U.S. Army veterans. Jack III has two boys with a girl on the way.
Chris Rood Field is located on the Wabash campus and sits in a natural bowl. Spectators sit on a side of a hill looking down at the diamond. Trees were removed to place the field. A few years ago — needing a community service project — Holley’s students created the landscaped seating area around the press box.
An outfielder and pitcher as a player, Holley graduated from Wabash in 1988 and went on to play for Paul Twenge at Valparaiso (Ind.) University.
An ACL injury suffered on the football field as a freshman kept Holley off the diamond in 1989. He played for Twenge’s Crusaders 1990-93 — the first two years in right field and the last two in center. He was also a closer on the mound.
In 1992, Holley hit .285 (41-of-144) with two home runs, eight doubles and 16 runs batted in and five stolen bases.
Holley began coaching football at Wabash right out of college and was the Apaches head coach 2003-07.

Wabash Apaches Baseball. Hall of Famer Chris Rood wore No. 37.

Jack Holley.

Chayden Beeks.

Jared Brooks.

Colten Learned.

Shane Smith.

Wabash (Ind.) High School’s Ashton Smith at first base and Izaak Wright at second at Parkview Field in Fort Wayne.

Family comes first for North Miami baseball’s Floor

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

Shannon Floor has been coaching baseball for more than three decades.
He began in the Wabash (Ind.) Little League and Junior/Senior League and later led travel teams with the Fort Wayne-based Summit City Sluggers and seventh and eighth graders at North Miami Middle/High School in Denver, Ind.
He was asked to join the varsity coaching staff and 2021 was his first season as Warriors head coach.
Floor credits three men for getting him to where he’s at as a coach — Carl Pace, Mark Delagarza and Troy Hudson.
“They’ve been tremendous mentors to me,” says Floor.
Pace, who is now head softball coach at Southwood Junior-Senior High School in Wabash, led Little League teams with Floor as his assistant.
Delagarza is the founder of the Summit City Sluggers and has run the organization since 1996. He counts Floor as a 17U head coach.
Hudson, the North Miami athletic director, ran the Warriors baseball program and brought Floor on board when Hudson moved up from assistant to head coach for 2017.
The 2022 season will be Floor’s fifth at North Miami. In 2018, he guided middle schoolers in the spring and then took players into Babe Ruth ball in the summer and finished as state runner-up to New Castle and placed fourth at the Ohio Valley Regional in West Virginia.
The following spring (2019), North Miami won its first-ever IHSAA sectional championship, besting West Central, Caston and Northfield to win the Class 1A tournament at Caston.
Hudson stepped down after what would have been the 2020 season (canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic) and Floor was installed as head coach.
Floor holds three things dear while guiding his team.
“No. 1 is family,” says Floor, himself a married man with three ball-playing three sons. “No. 2 is team fundamentals and development. We want to rely on each other and make each other accountable. We also want to be succeeding in academics.
“Then we work on playing good ball on the field.”
North Miami had just over 20 players for varsity and junior varsity teams in 2021.
“We could have 28 to 30 (for 2022) if everything holds up,” says Floor. “(Winning) has spring-loaded our program. It’s the first time the excitement has been at that level and the numbers started growing.
“We want to keep going in that direction.”
An IHSAA Limited Contact Period went from Aug. 30-Oct. 16 and the Warriors took full advantage of it.
“We had a very good turnout,” says Floor. “We averaged 16 to 18 guys (in twice-weekly two-hour sessions) — about triple from last year.”
Since North Miami is a small school with many fall athletes, one of the sessions was held on Saturday afternoons so it did not interrupt football activities.
North Miami (enrollment around 290) is a member of the Three Rivers Conference (with Maconaquah, Manchester, Northfield, Peru, Rochester, Southwood, Tippecanoe Valley, Wabash and Whitko).
Based on the IHSAA Portal, Maconquah and Peru are the largest TRC schools with around 660 students reach, followed by Tippecanoe Valley (around 570), Rochester (around 510), Manchester (around 500), Wabash (around 470) and Whitko (around 450). Below North Miami are Northfield (around 275) and Southwood (around 230).
“For a 1A school it’s one of the tougher conferences,” says Floor.
In 2021, the Warriors were part of a Class 1A sectional grouping with Caston, North White, Northfield, Pioneer, Southwood and West Central.
Warrior Field — on the North Miami campus — has received upgrades in recent years, including new layers of soil. Last year, a nine-inning scoreboard and flagpole was installed. This year warning tracks, dugouts and bullpens are getting facelifts.
The setting includes pine trees circling much of the outfield.
“Its come a long way,” says Floor. “It is one of the most beautiful fields you can play on.”
Floor’s assistants are Peru graduate Josh Donathan and North Miami alums Pat Masters and Chad Wright. Masters is a senior at Manchester University. Wright lead the JV Warriors.
Besides the middle school teams, North Miami Youth League, a Town & Country Baseball-sanctioned organization in Denver, feeds the high school.
The diamond is in Floor’s blood.
“My entire family has been a baseball family,” says Floor, a 1988 graduate of Manchester High School in North Manchester, Ind.
While he did not play the game in high school, Shannon did suit up until 16 and began coaching at 20.
Shannon (51) is the oldest of three sons born to Gene (now deceased) and Rita (now known as Rita Slater and living in North Manchester) and is six year older than Shawn and eight older than Shane.
Shawn Floor, who coached with Shannon, has two boys who played at Wabash High School and the next level — Jordan Floor at Jackson (Mich.) College and Trevor Floor at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Shane Floor played, but has not done much coaching. He has girls who are not into sports.
For as long as he’s coached baseball, Shannon Floor has been a cattle farmer — the last 15 years with his own farm.
Shannon and wife Amy have been married of 17 years. Their sons are junior Kolton (17), eighth grader Karter (14) and fifth grader Keaton (10). Kolton Floor has been with the Summit City Sluggers since 8. The other two play baseball and other sports.

The scoreboard and flagpole at scenic Warrior Field at North Miami Middle/High School in Denver, Ind.

Assistant coach Pat Masters, senior Tyler Bauer, head coach Shannon Floor, senior Alex Masters and assistant coach Josh Donathan at the 2021 North Miami Middle/High School baseball awards program.

Southwood Knights baseball coach Dailey splits time between field, force, family

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Warren Dailey dons two different uniforms on most days during the spring.

One of them has a ball cap. The other has a badge.

Dailey enters his third season as head baseball coach at Southwood Junior/Senior High School in Wabash, Ind., in 2019.

As a patrolman for the Marion Police Department working third shift, Dailey sometimes goes right from a game to the beat.

He efficiently juggles the two roles.

“I do what I can in the time that I have,” says Dailey, a former high school and college player.

Dailey is a 2001 graduate of Eastbrook High School in Marion, Ind., where he played for head coach Brian Abbott.

“He always cared about you as a person,” says Dailey of Abbott, who is now pitching coach at Huntington University and executive director of the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association. “That came first for him. I’ve grown to understand that. It’s probably even more important now than it was then.”

As a college player, Dailey spent one season at Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne for head coach Billy Gernon (now head coach at Western Michigan University) and two at Indiana Wesleyan University for head coach Mark DeMichael (now IWU athletic director).

“(Gernon) was pretty hard core,” says Dailey. “He played for Bob Morgan (at Indiana University) and that’s where he got everything from. Of course, it was college and you were going from a child to an adult.”

DeMichael often coached 30 or more players and had just one assistant. Dailey still marvels at that.

“You need to surround yourself with plenty of good people,” says Dailey, whose 2019 Southwood staff includes Dalton Gentry, Cory Blocker, David Glickfield and E.J. Devarie.

Gentry (a Southwood graduate), Blocker and Glickfield are back for their third seasons with Dailey. Devarie is entering his first season.

Dailey was as assistant for two seasons at Eastbrook — one on the staff of Ben Irwin and one working with David Day. He spent one season as an assistant to Bengie Rodriguez at Madison-Grant before joining head coach Kris Holtzleiter at Southwood, beginning with the 2013 season. Holtzleiter is now an assistant at Indiana Wesleyan University.

During Dailey’s time on the staff, Southwood has produced three Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association all-stars — outfielder Jackson Blair (2014), pitcher Robbie Cole (2015) and first baseman Clay Hinrichsen (2016). Left-hander Brennan Kelly is on the baseball roster at Eastern Kentucky University.

Southwood (enrollment around 280) is a member of the Three Rivers Conference (with Maconaquah, Manchester, Northfield, North Miami, Peru, Rochester, Tippecanoe Valley, Wabash and Whitko). TRC games are played on Mondays and Wednesdays with each team playing one another once to determine a champion. The Knights reigned as conference champions in 2015 (7-0) and 2016 (7-2 after Maconaquah and Peru joined the TRC).

“It’s an extremely competitive conference,” says Dailey. “There’s no holding back. You try to navigate the best you can with your pitching staff.”

Dailey says the last week of the conference season has often been crazy with an unexpected result tightening the race.

Southwood has been invited again to participate in the Fort Wayne TinCaps/Parkview Sports Medicine High School Baseball Series at Parkview Field in Fort Wayne. Wabash County Night is slated for Thursday, May 9 with Southwood taking on Wabash at 4:30 p.m., followed by Northfield vs. Manchester around 7.

Among non-conference opponents on Southwood’s schedule are Alexandria-Monroe, Blackford, Bluffton, Eastbrook, Eastern, Fort Wayne Bishop Luers, Huntington North, Marion, Mississinewa, Oak Hill, Taylor and Western.

The Knights are part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping with Caston, North Miami, North White, Northfield, South Newton and West Central. Southwood has won four sectional championships — the last in 2014.

Multiple-sport athletes are the norm at Southwood. Dailey sees a handful of athletes at fall and winter baseball workouts.

“I encourage our guys to do as many sports as they’re able to,” says Dailey, who plans to approach Knights head boys basketball coach John Burrus soon about giving some of his pitchers some time to throw so March 11 (the first official preseason practice date) is not the first time they’ve touched a baseball in months.

Last winter, Southwood had a prolonged basketball run, finishing as 2018 Class 1A state runners-up. Neighboring Oak Hill, coached by Shane Edwards, started its baseball season a little later than originally scheduled after a Class 2A state championship run on the hardwood.

The Knights play their home baseball games on a field affectionately known as “The Launching Pad” for its smallish dimensions.

“It’s just a tiny field,” says Dailey. “The fences are not very far back. I’ve never measured them. I never wanted to put a number on it

“Hitters light up when they show up at our field. It holds more baseballs than it probably should.”

There are a fair number of home runs clubbed at the field, which has a pasture beyond left field and a storage barn down the right field line which sometimes creates a bit of a wind tunnel.

Dailey says the administration considered moving home plate back, but that meant re-doing the infield so the plan never gained any traction.

While there is no junior high baseball at Southwood (the idea has been kicked around), there is the Wabash Little League and Wabash Babe Ruth League prepping younger players.

The Babe Ruth League feeds three area high schools — Southwood, Northfield and Wabash. A few years ago, players were separated based on their high school affiliation and the high school head coach is responsible for finding the head head coach. For Southwood, that’s former Knights player Christian Dieter (who played for head coach Holtzeiter and assistant Dailey).

There are usually about six league teams — one or two for Southwood, two for Northfield and two or three for Wabash. There also some players from the surrounding area that will end up at Maconaquah, Manchester or Peru.

Zach Dials, a 2003 Southwood graduate, was selected in the 28th round of the 2006 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays out of the University of Kentucky. A right-handed pitcher, he was a first-team all-state selection as a senior and played at John A. Logan College before UK. He appeared in 157 professional games through 2010.

 

Warren and Kelly Dailey live in Sweetser, Ind., and have four children — Corbin (11), Brianna (8), Chase (6) and Knox (4).

Corbin, Knox, Brianna and Chase Dailey hang out with “The Colonel.” They are the children of Warren and Kelly Dailey. Warren Dailey is head baseball coach at Southwood Junior/Senior High School in Wabash, Ind., and a patrolman with the Marian Police Department.

The Dailey family attends church (clockwise from left): Warren, Corbin, Knox, Kelly, Chase and Brianna. Warren Dailey is head baseball coach at Southwood Junior/Senior High School in Wabash, Ind., and a patrolman with the Marian Police Department.

Kelly and Warren Dailey share a vacation moment. Warren Dailey is head baseball coach at Southwood Junior/Senior High School in Wabash, Ind., and a patrolman with the Marian Police Department.