Springfield-area sports notebook: Gym renamed, HOFers, Coach of the Year and more
On Saturday, the Beardstown Gard Elementary gym was named in honor of the late Bob Hembrough, who patrolled its sidelines as a boys and girls basketball coach for 21 seasons. It is now called Coach Hembrough Gym.
Hembrough died in 2022 at 88 years old.
In 2005, Beardstown opened two new gyms — the 2,000-seat facility at the high school and one at the middle school nearly identical to the high school gym but it seats around 600 people. Those gyms replaced the gym from 1959 where Hembrough did most of his coaching. He coached the boys basketball team from 1978-1992 and again from 2000-04. In 2009, he became the girls basketball coach for three more seasons.
“He is a Beardstown legend,” Beardstown’s district technology director Wendy McClenning told The State Journal-Register of Hembrough in 2022.
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He also coached football at Beardstown for six seasons. His long teaching and coaching career took him to Virginia, Lexington, Los Angeles and back to Illinois in Hamilton before he was hired at Beardstown.
Hembrough is a member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association and Illinois High School Football Coaches Association halls of fame.
Mark Grounds, Katie McCulley add to HOF ranks
Jacksonville football coach Mark Grounds and Lutheran volleyball coach Katie McCulley received big news in 2023: each coach was chosen to the state coaches hall of fame for their sport.
Grounds, the second-winningest coach in Jacksonville High’s history, will be inducted into the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame at its annual banquet on March 23 in Champaign. Grounds is 118-106 in 23 seasons with the Crimsons and has led the team to the Illinois High School Association playoffs 12 times — including a Class 5A semifinal appearance in 2004. Before Grounds, Jacksonville had qualified for the postseason just one time from 1974 through 2000.
McCulley entered the Illinois Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame after her 17th season coaching the Crusaders, part of the Class of 2023. She’s led Lutheran to 20 or more wins 15 times and the Crusaders have four state tournament trophies in that span: a 2022 Class 1A runner-up finish; two 1A third-place finishes (2010 and ‘11) and a fourth-place finish in the 2021 Class 1A state tournament.
McCulley is 444-179 with 10 regional titles and five sectional championships.
Seitzer pulls in Coach of the Year honor
Kevin Seitzer, a 1980 Lincoln High School graduate and Atlanta Braves hitting coach, was named the 2023 Major League Coach of the Year by Baseball America last month.
“It’s a stinkin’ team effort, man,” Seitzer told Baseball America. “But it’s very cool. Very humbling. I don’t feel worthy at all. Hitting coaches just show up, grind and get after it and try to keep the ship afloat the best we can.”
Atlanta hit 307 home runs in 2023 to tie Minnesota’s 2019 record as the Braves became the first team in MLB history to equal or exceed .500 with an overall slugging percentage of .501. Atlanta also led MLB with 947 runs, 1,543 hits, a .276 batting average and a .344 on-base percentage and won 104 games, which was also the best in the league.
“We kept scoring. We kept hitting homers,” Seitzer told Baseball America. “And, you know, we get to the end, and I look back and I’m going, ‘Holy cow, this is unbelievable.’ We didn’t really have a slump as a team — which is a miracle — until the postseason.”
The 61-year-old Seitzer finished second to Mark McGwire in voting for the 1987 American League Rookie of the Year, spent parts of 12 seasons in the majors and had a .295 career average with 74 home runs and 613 RBIs in 1,439 games. Seitzer played for Kansas City, Milwaukee, Oakland and Cleveland.
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He coached at Arizona, Kansas City and Toronto before spending the last nine seasons with Atlanta.
Pro baseball coming to Robin Roberts Stadium
The Frontier League baseball team from Sauget, the Gateway Grizzlies, will play their first game at Robin Roberts Stadium since 2001 this summer.
The Grizzlies will host the Lake Erie (Ohio) Crushers at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 13 at the historic ballpark. Professional baseball has been dormant in Springfield since the Capitals moved to Rockford following the 2001 season.
Last year, the Grizzlies finished 59-37 and won the West Division. Lake Erie was 37-59 and finished last in the West.
Robin Roberts Stadium, which opened in 1928, is the home to the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes, a wood-bat collegiate baseball team.
Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at tickets.shoesbaseball.com.
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Springfield January sports notebook: Beardstown gym renamed and more
