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Ted Wright -- last update 1/28/2006 (BaseballDinnerWard.html)
www.cvilleok.com
Copyright 2006 -- Collinsville, Oklahoma
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Collinsville,
Oklahoma
Jan.
28, 2006
CHS
Baseball Diamond Dinner
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Former
CHS Coach Gary Ward Spoke to Current Baseball Team, Parents & Friends
Gary
Ward coached in Collinsville 6 years before winning college baseball national
championships in Arizona and many trips to the college world series with OSU.
CHS
Coaches (Past & Present) -- Bob Martin, Gary Ward and Tony Reeder.
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| Coach
Ward had basketball and baseball teams and assisted with football in Collinsville
in his 6 years here in the 1960s. |
The
2006 Collinsville High School baseball team circled Coach Gary Ward for his
advice on baseball and life in general. This view was before the dinner which
the team helped serve to their supporters in the Middle School Commons Jan.
28th.
One
of the items in the Home Run Club's silent auction was a guitar signed by Garth
Brooks.
KTUL's
Jack Bunds was the master of ceremonies for the Collinsville Baseball Diamond
Dinner saturday.
Coach Ward didn't pull
any punches in his message Saturday. He said the memory flooded back after
returning to Collinsville today. But he said all the memories weren't happy
at the time. One memory was having a heater practically explode in his face
while lighting it in the old CHS gym just a few feet from where he spoke this
evening. Gary was a 23 year old coach when he first arrived in Collinsville.
He says now, "It would have nice to have been a parent before becoming
a coach." He said he came here with the same fierce competitive spirit
he still has, and a good knowledge of baseball, but he couldn't really appreciate
parent's requests until having been in their shoes.
Coach Ward also credited
his Collinsville experience with one lesson he used in his success at future
schools. The lesson was "never trust a school administrator" ...
at least not completely ... to help take care of the resource needs of his
baseball programs. He learned to develop private sector support via booster
organizations.
A portion of Ward's message
to the current Collinsville baseball team was to take responsibility for all
of their actions, use their manners, do the required work, take the advice
of their parents and coach ... and "the scoreboard will take care of
itself".
Note:
I missed a significant portion of the baseball program while covering the concurrent
Chamber of Commerce Banquet with Tony
Casillas as quest speaker (at CHS). -- Ted Wright -- 1:40am Sunday
