South's Kyle Kraemer retires from baseball coaching role
Oct. 6—An era in Vigo County high school baseball is ending.
After 29 seasons as Terre Haute South's coach, Kyle Kraemer is stepping down.
"I have retired from coaching baseball at Terre Haute South," Kraemer said Friday morning.
Kraemer built a 550-266-2 career record at South, which may make him Vigo County's all-time winningest coach in that sport. Steve DeGroote had 441 wins at West Vigo and Don Jennings — who ironically, despite being the coach at Terre Haute North, was on South's search committee that hired Kraemer — had 370. Totals for the late Howard Sharpe are unavailable.
The process for replacing Kraemer will follow standard procedure for all coaching hires, South Athletic Director Ed Jarvis said Friday. The job will be posted first, applications will then be taken, and a committee will ultimately make the decision, Jarvis said.
Kraemer's connection to the program dates back to his playing days at South, where the 1986 THS graduate earned first-team All-State honors from the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association as a senior and played in the North-South All-Star Series.
South won sectional and regional titles in his junior and senior seasons, coached by Ken Martin. Afterward, Kraemer played four seasons at Purdue, serving as the Boilermakers' team captain as a senior.
After serving as an assistant coach at West Lafayette and Terre Haute South, he became head coach of the Braves in 1995, succeeding Martin.
Also this week, the Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame announced Kraemer is among 13 nominees for induction in its 2024 class.
According to the Hall's biography, 76 of Kraemer's players later played collegiately and eight professionally.
Sixty-six Braves in his program earned all-conference honors, and five became IHSBCA first-team All-State picks.
His teams have won conference championships, including six in the Braves' former league affiliation, the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference, and two in Conference Indiana. In the postseason, his South teams have won 10 sectional championships, five regionals and made two Final Four appearances. Kraemer was MIC Coach of the Year six times, and received similar CI honors twice.
Kraemer teaches in the CTE Department at Terre Haute South and is expected to be named a dean at West Vigo at Monday's Vigo County School Corporation board meeting. He would replace Chris Covert, who has taken another job at Greencastle.
"It wouldn't be fair [to continue as South's coach]," Kraemer told Tribune-Star reporter Andy Amey. "It would be extremely difficult to be a dean at one high school and coach at another, logistically speaking."
