Vigo County —
You often hear about coaches imparting life lessons to their players.
That is certainly true for all three Vigo County high school baseball coaches. So much so, they have their players thinking green too.
No, not green as in money, but green as in grass, creating a trio of beautifully manicured ball diamonds where the players have a large stake in their appearance and upkeep.
A specific life lesson for the players? If you believe the many comic strips where teenage boys are involved, it might be analogous to “cleaning their rooms."
Fans might have noticed while attending games at Terre Haute North, Terre Haute South and West Vigo that the players all have groundskeeping duties, a choreographed effort to keep their respective diamonds shipshape.
All three coaches, Steve DeGroote (West Vigo), Kyle Kraemer (South) and Shawn Turner (North), like to defer credit for the appearance of their ballparks, but they are the driving forces.
“You see the kids here working on the field like that, I think this is important,” DeGroote said. “One thing about baseball, players did a lot to develop this field. They raise money, just a lot of little things our kids did. They really take pride in all this.”
“Every kid on all three levels [freshman, JV, varsity] is assigned one thing to do after every practice, after every game,” Kraemer said. “We don’t believe in outside sources or parents having to take care of [the field]. Gives the players a sense of responsibility and ownership in the field.”
“Our players take pride in our field,” Turner agreed. “It means a lot to them that visiting teams and fans think highly of our field. American Legion fans from all over the state come here in the summer, so they see how nice the field is too.”
All three coaches are certainly familiar with riding mowers, spending a lot of their own time mowing their respective fields season after season.
In fact, DeGroote made his observations while sitting astride his mower, taking a break from smoothing the infield dirt after a recent game this season, which is not unusual. For practically every interview of DeGroote after a game at Dick Ballinger Field, he has to be flagged down while riding his mower.
Asked how much time he spends on a mower, he chuckled.
“A lot,” DeGroote admitted. “Sunday is four to five hours. I’ve been out here on our anniversary for four or five hours. Right now it takes mowing at least every other day, if not more, which I love.
“It takes a lot, but you know what? The kids deserve it. When I’m doing this I’m thinking, ‘These kids work so hard to play, they deserve this.' It’s the least I can do so they have something nice to play on.”
Turner had just finished a long mowing session before this interview late Sunday. He quickly credits a lot of people along the way, including his team’s booster club, in assisting his efforts at Jennings Field.
The Patriots’ diamond has come a long, long way from the time of the school’s first coach, Hall of Famer Don Jennings. His inaugural season in 1972 began without even basics such as grass or dugouts.
“We start every year with our parents and players, telling them how to go about things in helping us work on our field,” Turner said. “We take pride in our effort . . . we don’t go through the motions.”
Turner says his players drag and rake the diamond daily, keep their eyes open for grass in the baselines, monitor the wind screen around the field and, last but not least, weed the bullpens.
Mowing is also a family affair for Turner with his wife and two sons regularly assisting him. Turner freely admits he’s spent a lot of special family occasions at Jennings Field.
“On our 10th anniversary in 2005, my wife and I had to get the field ready for an American Legion tournament, then turned around and drove to see [former player] John Cummins play in an All-Star Tournament,” Turner recalled.
“My two sons were born in the spring and summer, so we’ve spent a lot of their birthdays at the ballpark too.”
One big help in maintaining North’s green grass is the whole field being irrigated since 2006, complete with 17 zones of coverage.
South’s ballpark began its metamorphosis about 12 years ago, according to Kraemer.
“We stripped the infield and put new sod down . . . the reason was so we could get rid of our dirt basepaths and have them grassed in,” Kraemer said. “About 10 years ago, we had the best investment we’ve made, purchased an irrigation system, because all that grass needs water.”
Kraemer says his entire infield and about one-third of the outfield is irrigated.
“Our wish list is to get the rest of the irrigation installed, “ Kraemer added. “We’ll have really plush grass, even from late June and beyond.”
Kraemer has spent a lot of time on a riding mower too. He says prior to the last two years, he regularly cut both the fair and foul territories, seeded the infield and outfield too.
A lot of the workload for all three coaches has been eased by Bill White, a groundskeeper with the Vigo County School Corporation. All three coaches singled out White for his contributions, from generating new grass growth to mowing.
“Last fall, this field looked the worst it's ever looked,” DeGroote said. “I said ‘Omigosh, it looks bad’. [White] came out here, aerated, seeded it, fertilized it … now it looks awesome.”
“For the last two years, [White] has cut all the grass but the infield,” Kraemer said. “Cutting, aerating, feeding … this field would be one-fourth of what it would be without him helping.”
Other fields in the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference — North and South are members — have nice fields too. But they don’t feature the hands-on approach of their Vigo school counterparts.
“Actually, some schools in our conference hire outside sources,” Kraemer said. He wouldn’t identify specific schools, but you can just imagine which ones fall in that category.
As for the player involvement in groundskeeping, Kraemer feels it will pay off in his player’s futures.
“My hope is that five or 10 years after [his players] leave South, they won’t be afraid to mow their own yards … or at least not to hire it done,” Kraemer laughed.
High School
Related Photos
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Weed free: West Vigo baseball team members (from top) Duston Bryan, Kyle Stewart, Brody Donnelly and Austin Wallace pull weeds from the edge of the outfield after a game last week. (Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis)
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Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Manicured: West Vigo baseball coach Steve DeGroote drags the infield while his team does the detail work on the mound and base paths after their win over North Vermillion last week.
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Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Dreams made here: West Vigo baseball coach Steve DeGroote has instilled a sense of pride and ownership in his players concerning the condition of their ball diamond.
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Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Manicured: West Vigo head baseball coach Steve DeGroote drags the infield while his team does the detail work on the mound and base paths after their win over North Vermillion last week.
Discussion
Fields of green
Prep baseball programs fashion diamonds in the rough
- High School
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The Patriots shot 304 as a team Wednesday, giving them a two-day score of 615, good for 13th place in the 15-team field. -
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North, South, Sullivan to compete at golf regional
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Rockville's season ends at Lafayette Central Catholic
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IHSAA boys state track finals: Standing alone
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Terre Haute North, West Vigo return to baseball regionals
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Patriots girls take aim at state track title
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South, North track athletes looking for big performances at state finals
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Internet site keeps area prep teams on airwaves
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South Vermillion softball can't overcome errors, Tri-West
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Clay City softball comes up short against Lutheran
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The Eels wanted to add another win, the school’s first regional title, but they came up short.
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PREP ROUNDUP: Rockville wins baseball sectional
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Class 4A Terre Haute South Sectional:The wait is over
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Class 4A Terre Haute South Sectional: TH North, Plainfield win squeakers
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Class 2A Linton Sectional: Eastern rains on Sullivan parade
Mother Nature put Sullivan’s quest for a high school baseball sectional championship on hold Monday night at Linton-Stockton High School. Sullivan (14-15) and Eastern Greene (16-7) will resume play in the Class 2A Sectional 47 championship game at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Linton’s Roy Herndon Field.
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Opening Day: Terre Haute Rex host Quincy
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South Vermillion, Linton, Clay City look to stay alive in softball
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West Vigo back on top of Class 3A baseball sectional
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South runs into ‘buzzsaw’ at girls tennis semistate
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