FM and HTC to merge junior high baseball programs

FMHS coach says move sets up bright future for baseball in Fort Madison

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - The Fort Madison High School and Holy Trinity Catholic baseball teams have been playing together for the past three years, and now the Fort Madison School board has said its appropriate to join the junior high programs as well.

At Tuesday's regular meeting of the school board, the board voted 5-2 to approve a one-year agreement with Holy Trinity for the program to be held in West Point.

Fort Madison High School baseball coach Ron Walker said he's been working for the past three years to put the entire baseball program under one umbrella. Walker took over the high school program after the 2018 season and put the Hounds on the winning track immediately with a 16-14 record his first year.

They finished last year at 25-9 with a loss in the second round of Substate 4 action 5-1 to Central DeWitt.

It was in 2019 that the Holy Trinity Catholic boys joined the Fort Madison Bloodhounds in a shared program. At that point the schools were already sharing boys track, tennis and football and girls track and cross country.

Walker said this move will allow the philosophies of the Bloodhound program to transcend deeper into youth play.

"When I took the job four years ago one of the goals was to build a jayvee program which we got going right away. We've even started playing freshman games recently," he said.

"When you look at longevity of programs, your successful programs have something instilled from top to bottom. So I think getting a junior high program and coaches that will work with you and start implementing what you know at the high school level can go a long ways."

HTC is working on finding coaches and Walker said things seem to be moving along those lines.

"There have been conversations on both sides and we're excited about what that looks like," he said.

He said HTC will have the junior high program and Fort Madison kids will play in West Point and use the South Park baseball field.

"This is about the kids in the community and building a program. We want to take our lead-offs the same way, be in the proper catch position, talk about our approach at the plate so when we get them at the high school level they've already been introduced to all of that," Walker said.

He said 2021 graduates Jason and Vasin Thurman were part of Walker's baseball instruction for the past six years when they were in club baseball with Walker. He said their success the past three years is a strong example of what can happen with integrated programming at both the junior high and high school level.

Walker said two other Southeast Conference schools Fairfield and Washington just incorporated junior high baseball programs under those schools' leadership as well.

"This should be identical to our high school program. Everything will be flip-flopped to the Holy Trinity name, but we will be working together as a whole," he said.

"I think it's a great thing to get everything under one roof per se. The pipeline couldn't be better set. These parents are all from our community and we should just get bigger and better and that's great for our community."

Holy Trinity Athletic Director John Goetz said the HTC community is excited about the program.

"Its a great opportunity for both schools. We've got really good facilities at South Park in West Point and it creates a great feeder program into the high school program," he said.

Goetz said HTC has been in talks with potential coaching candidates and will be making a decision in the near future.

"We're going to hire the coaches," he said. "We have a pretty good lead and will announce that later, but we've had talks with Fort Madison on that."

Goetz confirmed that as of right now all games and practices will be at South Park.

The Denmark Ball Association is the only other junior high program in the area. Jared Durbin, the president and treasurer for that group took to Facebook on the group's page after hearing of the Fort Madison approval and said, "On a positive note, the school board has expressed interest in hosting a junior high program in the coming year(s).

"But all is not lost. Denmark Ball Assn. at this time still has approval to host Jr. High Teams. I need to work on the schedule side to see if teams still have the capacity to play. More information to come."

The agreement will need to be reviewed and approved again by both the HTC board and the FMCSD board before the 2023 season. HTC's board approved the move several months ago.