NW Indiana HS Baseball: Ron Szayni back as Hanover Baseball Coach

CEDAR LAKE (5-10-2005) - It happened very quickly and all the details may not be for public consumption, but longtime coach Ron Szayni has returned as the head varsity coach of Hanover Central baseball two thirds of the way through the 2005 season.

Szyani replaces Greg Ford, who replaced Szayni at the start of this season. Exactly what prompted Ford's departure has not been announced. It was thought to be an off-the-field occurrence that had nothing to do with the team, which was 7-6 after 13 games.

While the mid-season dismissal of a coach is highly unusual, the return of Szayni is natural at this time of the year. The longtime HC coach still attended almost all the Wildcats games and appeared to miss coaching the Hanover boys. Szayni says the team is going to stay the same.

“If I had some time, we might make some adjustments, but we're playing almost every day now,” he commented Monday. “The only way we could get any practice time is if we lose on the first round of the PCC tournament (which starts on May 21) and that's not a way I want to go.”

It was thought that Hanover, which was rained out at Hebron Monday, had at least an outside chance to win the PCC tournament and win the Boone Grove Class 2A Sectional in June, where defending state champion Bishop Noll is the favorite. None of that changes now that the old coach is again the new coach.

“I discussed it with my wife,” Szayni said. “But she said, it's your decision. She didn't want any part of it. But I don't want to leave the kids in a lurch here.”

Szayni spoke often of retirement when he coached previously and he decided to quit when his son Todd completed his senior year. Tragedy struck when Todd Szayni was killed in a two-car accident days after his graduation in 2003 but coach Szayni returned to coach the baseball team in 2004 largely because the upperclassmen asked him to stay on. Greg Ford, who had coached Lowell's Post 101 American Legion summer team for five years, was brought in as Szayni's JV coach and heir apparent to the varsity job.

Even after the 2004 season, which Szayni said would be his last, folks expected him to walk into the office of athletic director Dave Seils at almost any time and ask to continue as coach. But when the present Hanover school renovation demolished the field, leaving the Cats with no place to play, Szayni let his resignation stick.

People should not assume that he will coach the team next year. The longtime Hanover coach and teacher isn't happy with the way the ongoing school renovation wiped out the Cats on-campus home which he had maintained almost single handedly (with the help of varsity players). Hanover does not have a baseball field for next year at this moment. The HC varsity practices and plays at Crown Point's Teagle Field, five miles north of Cedar Lake. The JV and freshman teams play at the Cedar Lake senior Little League field about an eighth of a mile southwest of the school. The school is paying to use Teagle Field and has no agreement at this time for next season. It doesn't take that long to build a baseball field, but you can't do it during the winter.

Everybody likes the fact that HC is upgrading their disco-era facilities, but the baseball program feels like they are second class citizens.

“That was the major thing that upset me,” admitted Szayni Monday. “We played on a crappy field for years that I worked my rear end off and spent my own money to build up. We played all of our scheduled games the last two years. There's not a lot of our teams in this area that can say that. I was there at 5 a.m. cutting grass sometimes to make it happen, but it happened. Knowing what we had and going to where we are now with no plan in between. That's what bothered me.”

Szayni, who coached his first 2005 game in Hanover's 8-7 loss to Kouts last Friday, doesn't have any problems with Teagle Field, the giant American Legion park where HC is playing home games this season.

“The field is beautiful,” Szayni said of the American Legion Post 20 field. “And we don't have to do anything. He (Post 20's manager and field operator Tony Samano) doesn't want us to do anything. He wants us to practice and play and then get off the field. He wants to do it all himself. And we're pretty much going to be just playing games the rest of the way.”

“People like it (playing at Teagle Field) but there's drawbacks to it. We're bussing people in different directions every day. If I go to the Legion Field, I don't see the young kids in Cedar Lake. And we have to get off that field, too. The (Senior) Little League doesn't want to wait until the end of our season to start their season. The other day, they (the Hanover freshmen JV) got bumped off the field at 4:30 and they didn't get there until a quarter of four.”

Greg's been around for a couple of years before he got here,” said Szayni. “He'd always come up to me very politely and ask if he could talk to the kids about playing American Legion ball in the summer. He never talked to them before he talked to me and asked if he could.”

“And then when he coached with me (as JV coach), I thought everything went well. But I know it was hard for him this year. There was a lot of paperwork and dealing with an administration that he wasn't aware of. I'd done it so long, I'd forgotten about all of it.”

“People think it's not that big a deal but it affects the time you have to practice. And he was not here at the school (Ford is not a teacher) so he was behind on a lot of things.”

Though he always appears to be the picture of health, Szayni has some physical problems including a torn rotator cuff that he has to take care of soon. He wasn't even sure he could swing a bat for batting practice. But you still get the hint he's happy to be coaching baseball again, even with all the problems it brings.

“If it wasn't me it probably would have been Al (freshman coach Al Myszkowski) and he can't always get there,” Szayni said. “It's not a great situation to be in, but I did feel a responsibility to the kids.”

Hanover Central Wildcats - Varsity Baseball

Remaining Baseball Schedule (7-6 after 1st 13 games in 2005)

Date		Opponent/Location		Time	Notes
May 10	(Tu)	Calumet	H	4:30 p.m.
May 11	(We)	LaCrosse*	H	4:30 p.m.	Live Internet Radio on USA-365.com
May 12	(Th)	Hammond Morton	A	4:30 p.m.
May 14	(Sa)	South Central*	A	11:00 a.m.
May 16	(Mo)	North Newton	A	4:30 p.m.
May 17	(Tu)	Lew Wallace (JV)	H	4:30 p.m.
May 20	(Fr)	River Forest	H	4:30 p.m.
May 21	(Sa)	PCC Quarterfinal vs. South Central	A	11:00 a.m.
May 23	(Mo)	PCC Semifinal vs. TBA	A	4:30 p.m.
May 25	(We)	PCC Championship (TBA - at So. Central)	A	4:30 p.m.	Live Internet Radio on USA-365.com
May 26	(Th)	Lake Station	A	4:30 p.m.
May 27	(Fr)	Hammond High	H	4:30 p.m.	Live Internet Radio on USA-365.com
May 30-June 4	(Mo)	Sectionals
June 8	(Sa)	Regionals
June 11	(Sa)	Semi-Finals
June 18	(Sa)	State Finals

Hanover Central brings back Ron Szayni as head baseball coach

Hanover Central Wildcats - Varsity Baseball

Remaining Baseball Schedule (7-6 after 1st 13 games in 2005)