The Boys’ Varsity Baseball team is dedicating its season to the late Hank Moulder, their former coach.
Moulder died unexpectedly last October, leaving the Blue Jays without a head baseball coach.
Math teacher Steven Sharp has stepped up to the plate as the new head coach of the Blue Jays. To honor Moulder, he and the entire team have been wearing white arm bands to games all season with the initials “HM” for Hank Moulder.
They also attended a tree planting ceremony in Moulder’s honor on Apr. 21. A red maple tree now stands in Moulder’s memory in the flower bed outside of the glass hallway by A House.
Unfortunately the team is not doing well this season. At press time, they had a 2-9 record, having defeated Oak Park High School and Pontiac Central.
Senior Marcus Anderson says it has been difficult to carry on without his former coach and that he and the other players have had to adjust to Sharp’s different coaching style. Sharp, who was an assistant coach for the Blue Jays last year, is more strict, according to Anderson, who has been on the team for four years.
Junior Leon McKissic, who has been on the team since his freshman year, says, “Coach Moulder was more laid-back and didn’t like take a lot of mistakes.” McKissic said Coach Sharp gets madder more easily than Coach Moulder did, but both are easy to get along with.
Yet neither Anderson nor McKissic blames Sharp for the team’s poor performance. Anderson says it has been a combination of player errors and inexperience that have kept the Blue Jays from soaring to new heights on the ball field this year. “We have a young team,” Anderson says.
Next year could be even tougher. The Blue Jays dropped their junior varsity baseball team this year due to low player interest. Traditionally that team would feed its best players to the varsity baseball team.