[Southsider2k12]

http://www.thenewsdispatch.com/articles/20...jesse/col91.txt

Coaches can make difference
Jesse K. Cox, Hanging by a Knuckle


Stripes are a fashion faux pas for an expanded waist. The vertical lines are like inch marks on a ruler.

Barring any uniform changes at Michigan City High School, Greg Geyer and Jeff Kalil are going to brave fashion industry backlash in the hopes everyone else will be looking at the Wolves players instead of the coaches' waist lines.

“I need to get on the treadmill,” Geyer said with a chuckle. “Jeff and I were talking about that. We need to look good in our uniforms.”

It's been six years since Geyer, a former Marquette and New Prairie junior high coach, wore any baseball uniform. But now he'll become the fourth head coach in as many seasons to wear City's navy-blue pinstripes in the home dugout.

As much as I hope vertical stripes send fashion magazine editors over the edge of sanity - as if any of them were well-adjusted individuals - here's to hoping the stripes stick to Geyer and his staff. Michigan City needs stability as much as it needs a mountain of victories.

A quick history lesson for those who haven't been following Michigan City baseball too closely the last four years:

Rich Lenard, now an assistant athletic director, coached the last winning team in 2003. The Wolves went 17-12 before losing to South Bend Adams in the opening round of the sectional tournament.

Lenard's last season marked the beginning of the Wolves' current losing skid. City went 6-12 before, again, losing to Adams in the first round.

As for 2005, it went about the same under coach Will Porter. The Wolves finished 7-22 and bowed out in yet another first-round sectional game. The only difference? LaPorte served as the ouster.

Ryan Labis matched Porter's seven-win mark and managed to keep it to just 19 losses. Of course, that's possibly because he didn't have as many games to worry about. And that includes the sectional where - have you guessed it already? - the Wolves lost in the first round.

One of the key elements in baseball at any level is eliminating psychological hang-ups, specifically losing. Geyer has a staff to help eliminate that at the core of the high school game's development: The junior varsity.

While their employment at City is still pending school board approval, former New Buffalo coach Wayne Tremblay and his assistant Carl Swenson have a Class D state title in Michigan as a solid example as the head and assistant junior varsity coaches at City.

Tremblay wasn't certain he would have a job after New Buffalo decided not to renew his contract because of self-serving political power plays by certain administrators and parents. Short of committing a crime or physically assaulting a child, there's no reason to let someone like Tremblay go, especially when there's a state title sitting in the trophy case.

Sour severance aside, Tremblay convinced himself work and watching his son, Wayne Jr., play his senior year was enough - until Swenson let City AD “Bear” Falls know the coach was in the market for another team.

“When I got the call from Swenson, I thought that would give our staff a tremendous amount of experience,” Falls said. “(Tremblay) didn't care at what level. He just wanted to be on the staff and help out the program.”

Tremblay, coincidentally, was running on the treadmill when I called. Of course, the only evidence of that was the whirring of the machine.

“If I sound like I'm out of breath it's because I'm on the treadmill,” he said.

Rub it in, Wayne.

Geyer, Tremblay and Kalil have plenty of experience since they all played some degree of professional ball.

“They look at our experience and that's got to say something: These guys do know baseball,” said Geyer, who was associated with the Minnesota Twins as well as a few other minor league teams in the area. “It's going to be a lot different than when I was playing, too.”

And for the sake of the program, City's pinstripes will look a lot different this season, too.

Contact sports writer Jesse K. Cox at jcox@thenewsdispatch.com or 874-7211, Ext. 577.

[Roger Kaputnik]

I hope this new regime will allow MC to take its rightful place under the baseball sun.