|
January 08, 2008 11:49 am
Legendary Orange baseball coach honored
“You never really know how a team is going to act. But if I had it all to do all over again, I’d do the same things. That is how impressed I am with what we have all accomplished. "
By Gabriel Pruett
CNHI News Service
ORANGE, Texas — There are certain coaches who go beyond just teaching a sport and
making high school kids do extra laps around a baseball field.
These men take extra moments to get to know players on a personal level
and teach athletes more than just how to turn a double play.
Chuck Young is certainly one of those men and his many years of
coaching has not gone unnoticed.
Young will be inducted Friday into the Texas High School Baseball
Coaches Association Hall of Fame. It will be the first time since West
Orange-Stark’s Ronnie Anderson was inducted in 2003 a coach in the area
has been placed in the hall.
Young started his coaching career in 1965 at Midlothian High School,
outside the Dallas area.
He then took his talents to Bridge City High School, starting to coach
the Cardinals in 1967. Young was with the Cardinals until moving to
Texas City High School in 1992 where he still coaches baseball after
retiring from teaching.
In all his years of coaching, 31 times Young’s teams have reached the
playoffs and twice his teams have reached the state tournament. The
latest being this past season when Texas City lost 6-3 to Mesquite
Poteet in the state semifinals.
After racking up nearly 700 career wins, Young has brought his teams to
six regional semifinals; 10 regional quarterfinals; 15 bi-district
championships and has won 15 district championships.
With all those credentials, it is easy to see how the Hall of Fame
committee came to the decision to induct Young.
“He is as deserving as any coach already in the Hall of Fame,” saod Little
Cypress-Mauriceville coach Steve Griffith, who played and coached against
Young. “This gives the Hall more credibility. He is a shoe in as
there has ever been.”
Like a lot of youngsters, Young grew up around the game of baseball. He
played little league and then went on to play at West Orange High
School.
Young then attended Sam Houston State University yet did not play
baseball he says because the team was fresh off a national championship
and “I could not have played with that bunch.”
Young then got the job at Midlothian coaching both baseball and
football for two years before heading back to the Golden Triangle.
He missed the Cardinals winning the state championship in football by a
year and still found joy in just being around kids.
“Baseball is a way to stay around kids,” Young said. “I always felt
like there were teachers and people who helped my kids and have helped
them become the successful people they are today. That is what I wanted
to do. I always remember the saying ‘Blessed is the man whose hobby and
job are the same thing.’ So I stayed with it. You repeat it for several
years and then this thing becomes your career. It was a matter of joy
in what I do.”
Young has seen so many of his former players graduate college and move
on to live successful lives, even some became coaches themselves.
One of those players is Orangefield’s Josh Smalley who is the Bobcats
offensive coordinator.
“You will not find a better human being than Coach Young,” Smalley
said. “I never once remember him yelling or screaming at players. He
just did not do that to anybody. Nobody deserves this honor more than
him because he touched a lot of kids lives.”
Smalley said a lot of what he does in his job comes straight from how
Young treated him when he was in high school.
“You just try to treat the kids fairly,” Smalley said. “Yelling is not
always the way to treat a player. Coach Young always wanted to know how
you are doing and how your family was. I’ve really tried to carry that
over. Coaching is a special profession to be in.”
Griffith has also brought a lot of what he learned from Young into his
program he has built at LC-M.
“I used to ride with him to coaching school every year and I would get
any information I could get from him,” Griffith said. “He would tell me
anything I wanted to know. I would say half of what we go by here at
LC-M I got from him. Early in my career I would go eat dinner with him
and his wife, Judy. There are two men in my life that sit atop and the
two greatest men in my life are my father and Chuck Young. If they name
the Bridge City field or state after him — he would be deserving.”
Speaking of that, there has been a movement to rename Cardinal Field
after the legendary coach. A website,
www.ipetitions.com/petition/ourcoach, was set up to gain names to
rename the field after Coach Young.
“Even as an opposing player you could tell he was a very respected man
in the education business,” Griffith said. “That says a lot because
even at an early age I could see he was a special guy. It is just the
way he walks and talks. He is what every young coach needs to be.”
Young has stayed humble after learning from Brenham Coach Jim Long he
would be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
“It really just gives credence to a life of work,” Young said. “I never
once sought the approval of people. I just kept coming back year after
year. There are a lot of stories in athletics you can apply to life.
The hardest thing each year is to build a team concept. Today sports
has really taken a turn into ‘What can I personally gain?’ We lost
track of the team and every year is different.
“You never really know how a team is going to act. But if I had it all
to do all over again, I’d do the same things. That is how impressed I
am with what we have all accomplished. A ton of my players are now such
successful individuals.”
Young added he was never expecting a call from a friend telling him he
would be inducted.
“There is no criteria to get into the Hall,” Young said. “I of course
was pleasantly surprised. For people who I coached against to nominate
me to put me in such a special place is an honor. I’m very humble over
it all. A lot of people deserve this more than I do.”
Smalley sees it a different way and knows Young deserves the honor much
more than Young will admit.
“I promise there will be some laughs shared in the audience,” Smalley
said. “There will be some good times in Waco. To be able to learn from
Coach Young, that was special. I am excited for him.”
Gabriel Pruett writes for The Orange (Texas) Leader.
|
