When I became the coach at Lutheran, one of my first priorities was to recruit other coaches to help me. Coach Riensche and Coach Davis joined up and my next step was to find a JV Coach. I was new to the Lutheran community so i went to my Manual guys and have a former player, Jeremiah Ingram, become our JV Coach. I thought I had struck gold!
Jeremiah played secondbase for me at Manual and also was a former student. He was and is a very high character guy. I was thrilled for Jeremiah to be on the coaching staff for 2005. He did a great job as the
JV Coach in getting players prepared for Varsity baseball by improving their physical and mental skills.
Jeremiah made many friends in his role.
On a personal note, when I think of certain plays that I witnessed by our players, Jeremiah had the greatest individual effort I saw as a player. Manual was playing a night game in the Sectional one year at
Holder Field against Decatur Central. I think the game had been delayed by rain and the conditions were damp and humid. We were being very competitive with Decatur Central. At one point in the game, a
Decatur Central player hit a high pop up down the rightfield line. It was clear very quickly that our rightfielder and first baseman were not going to be able to get to the ball. I can still see Jeremiah racing from his position around secondbase across the outfield to reach the ball. He made a great effort and dove for the catch, Unfortunately the ball was just out of his reach but the effort he demonstrated spoke for the type of player ind person Jeremiah is. The effort Jeremiah made says everything you would want to know about him.
As Jeremiah was not a teacher, his life continued and he was not able to return as the JV Coach in 2006. We were very fortunate to have Jeremiah for the 2005 season.
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