Borealis wrote: ↑Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:38 pm
That's super exciting! I'm glad it was a good experience for young and old!
College ball for 20-years? Where about?
After 7 years of college and 2 degrees, I still didn't know what I wanted to do. After nearly 10 years of working indoors 50 hours/week and getting poorly paid for 40 I decided to get back to coaching and during the decline of Gateway computers I quit and became a substitute teacher and volunteer coach. Then it got serious when I took a pitching coach job at Campbellsville University down in Kentucky. An NAIA school that I didn't know was really putting things together financially and eventually we got to full 12 scholarships and made it to (if I remember right) 7 straight super regionals and 1 World Series. Things can really happen when an administration understands the power of the athletic programs. If you ever get a chance, you should walk around the Campbellsville campus. From day 1 I was treated great. Pay was a 67% decrease from my last full-time job but it increased about 250% in 9 years. I loved it. Division 1 transfers, sons of former major leaguers.
Then mom and dad got sick and seeing them just once a year was a problem for me so I took a head coaching position close to home in South Dakota at a school that dropped the baseball program on us about 25 years earlier when they made the move to a technology based institution (now recognized as a high quality cyber security school). From 12 scholarships to less than 1 and the winters last seemingly until it becomes 95 degrees with 92% humidity. But close to family. another pay cut plus teaching 6 courses per year. First year we went 3-37 and ran off talented guys because they couldn't make grades, 15 guys at tournament time. Second year we went to the National Tournament (formerly known as Super Regionals). School started cutting our funding because post-season cost too much, so we did our own fundraising. After season 6, the AD emptied our fund raising account and I told him what I thought of him (in short, his women's basketball teams "couldn't win an intra-squad game and you fundraise less for the entire athletic department than we do just for our baseball program, and you couldn't lead a group in silent prayer much less an athletic department"). But, our money was the school's money in their eyes so we were not going to get it back. When I found out he received a 10% raise (for fundraising according to him) while I received a 1.8% raise (after finishing 3rd, behind 2 teams that each won over 50 games, in the 10-team conference while being 9th in scholarship) I called him up and said, "you're welcome for the fundraising money you stole from our program and you're welcome for my sending our baseball players to your fundraising event with the alumni. Just want you to know they will no longer be available to you because I have helped them find new schools to go to and my resignation will be on your desk in the morning."
That was about it other than our father, uncle, and cousin all passing away within about 15 months of each other (they were the reason all of the boys in our family are baseball guys). When dad went, mom had a stroke, losing her short-term memory and other issues. I went from being on several NAIA Baseball committees and in line to be President of NAIA Baseball to spending five years doing meaningless work and watching my nieces and nephews grow up while trying to help mom cope. It's what I refer to now as "The Dark Years." College was "The Lost Years." Now I have a niece who will be a freshman cheerleader at University of Louisville--look for her. she will be one of the small blonde ones that loves getting thrown in the air. She's excited. A nephew who will be a senior and has such good grades, schools from all over have reached out to him but he wants to play college baseball so we'll see. His American Legion team is currently 2 wins away from going to North Carolina for the national tournament. Some games are live streamed on Youtube. I will try to provide a link when available. And, the 7-year old niece constantly wants me to do videos with her so her mom can put us on the internet. It started when she was about 3 with a Playdough video that everyone in town saw, "I just tooted and it's stinky...." Yep. She gave us "movie star names" of Jenna and Eddie. She goes to every one of her brother's sporting events. She already understands athletics better than most people. Her coach pitch softball team lost to end the season and she was happy with the participation medal she got but asked me, "Why do we get a medal when we just lost?" Good question. I'm nervous about those videos because she is really into singing now. Elvis, I am not. But I try.
So that's it. Coaching again was wonderful. I'll be in North Carolina if they can win a couple more. My life has been a country song for the last five years but I figure between my "Lost Years" and "Dark Years" I can cut 12 years off my age, so I'm only 44. Maybe it's time to get married and have kids. Or maybe I'll look into some type of income first. Nahh!! It's still baseball season. Other things can wait.
Thanks for reading guys. I really like PEBA.
