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June 22, 2009

It's been a while: Last Vigo team to win a baseball state title? Try the 1974 North Patriots

By Dennis Clark

TERRE HAUTE — Thirty-five years and counting.

That’s how long it’s been since a Vigo County high school baseball team has won an IHSAA state championship. That streak continued when third-ranked West Vigo came up short 6-3 to No. 1-ranked Andrean in the Class 3A state title game at Victory Field in Indianapolis on Saturday.

The only Vigo County baseball state champion was Terre Haute North, way back in 1974.

A very interested spectator at Victory Field last weekend was the head coach of that North team, Don Jennings. And no, he was not in attendance hoping against hope that he would remain the only state champion baseball coach in Vigo County history.

Truth be told, he was rooting for West Vigo, even going as far as sporting a green hat and green shirt.

“West Vigo has had a good program out there,” Jennings stated. “Dick Ballinger was there and got the program started. Herschel Allen was there. Then Steve DeGroote came in there and is doing a great job. They’ve had some great athletes.

“I remember the year we won the state championship, we played West Vigo in the regular season. They beat us. We only lost two games that year. Dick Ballinger, he doesn’t mention that much, but I’m sure he was quite happy.

“The year before that, [West Vigo] beat Bloomington South and they were the state champion that year. Back-to-back years [West Vigo] beat the state champions.”

From Jennings’ perspective, he’s not the least surprised the Vikings have enjoyed success through the years.

In the past 10 seasons, the Vikings have been flirting with their own state championship. In four of those seasons (2000, 2004, 2008, 2009), they lost to the eventual state champion in tournament play.

West Vigo has had eight Indiana All-Star players: Kenny Pearson (current third base coach and father of senior pitcher/second baseman Jordan Pearson), Kelly Houser, Jeff Sell, Jim Hill, Culley DeGroote, Nick Surber, Dan Cuffle and John Cox.

Toss in more recent players such as Kevin Egli, Lenny Leclercq, Casey DeGroote, Morgan Coombs, Adam Lindsay and Bryan Chestnut.

This year’s edition featured a trio of Division I college recruits in seniors Jordan Pearson, Jeremy Lucas and Cameron Fagg. And the future bodes well with this year’s strong group of underclassmen.

Jennings learned following up a state title brings about high expectations. But despite having good players, he also learned winning on a regular basis in the state tournament is a dicey proposition at best.

“When we won the state championship in ‘74, I thought that was a pretty big deal,” Jennings recalled. “I never thought that would follow me throughout the years. Hardly a week goes by, or a month goes by, when somebody doesn’t mention that.”

But despite fielding several outstanding teams, winning 12 of 13 sectionals in one stretch, North only reached the state championship game one other time. In 1983, North lost 4-2 to Fort Wayne Northrop at Bush Stadium in Indianapolis.

“It’s funny, when you’ve won a state championship and several years later [1983] come back as a runner-up, it’s no big deal,” Jennings chuckled. “You don’t get the phone calls you did.

“I was in a restaurant [in Indianapolis] after we had lost and somebody told me they’d thought we should have done a lot better that year. I thought, well, runner-up is not too bad.”

Jennings still is convinced his 1975 team, the year following the state championship, had state title potential.

He recalled North beating Lafayette Jeff and their top pitcher (24-0 in his career) in the semistate on a hot Saturday afternoon at Lafayette’s Loeb Stadium. But the championship game that night was rained out — which included a tornado warning.

“I thought the rainout was a good thing, letting the kids rest up from from playing Jeff,” Jennings observed. “But it didn’t work out that way.” His Patriots bowed out of the tournament in disappointing fashion the following Monday night.

He also regretted never winning a sectional in his time at Garfield, despite having a pair of talented players in Larry Gallagher and Howard Williams, both drafted by major league teams.

West Vigo has had lulls in its tournament success too, despite its recent stretch of fielding good teams. After their state finals appearance in 2000, the next three years they failed to get out of the regional (twice) and sectional (once).

After reaching the semistate championship game in 2004, the Vikings lost to Edgewood the next three years in the sectional.

Jennings knows from experience that even a very talented team need good breaks to be successful along the tournament trail.

“The year we won the state championship, Clinton had a real good team that year,” Jennings stated. “We beat them up there about one or two runs. Come regional time, they threw a different pitcher against us — they had two real good pitchers. But we were able to beat them I think 6-0. I always thought if they had thrown one of these pitchers we’d seen the first time, it might have been different.

“We had a real good game with Brazil, and Brazil could have very easily beaten us. I look back on that game and I thought, ‘Wow, we were really lucky.’

“You have to get some breaks, but you also have to make your good breaks. And you have to have good luck. I’ve always told them, good luck is when opportunity meets preparation. Bad luck is when you don’t prepare, I guess,” he laughed.

Jennings, a member of the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame, is proud of his team’s mark on history, noting it was great for North and also Terre Haute.

Thirty-five years later, West Vigo also had its baseball legacy in mind in the waning days of this season.

“It finally hit me this week that all the hard work we’ve done has paid off,” said junior shortstop Tyler Wampler a couple days prior to last Saturday’s state title game. “This team, this coaching staff and this town deserve this, to have us get to the state and make history.”

Win or lose, the Vikings indeed enjoyed an incredible and historic run this season.

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