Grand Ledge baseball coach Pat O'Keefe is closing in on 1,000 career wins, which would make him only the second skipper in the state to have reached that victory plateau.
But right now, as the state is starting its postseason tournament, O'Keefe is more focused on trying to steer his team to a championship.
As of this week, O'Keefe is at 994 victories with a 24-4 record this season. He could reach 1,000 wins by early June if his team wins district and regional titles and advances to the state finals and adds a few more wins.
O'Keefe's has coached two state championship teams and led another that went 41-3 but came up short in the finals.
Larry Tuttle from Blissfield became the first state coach to pass the 1,000-mark last season.
“You never think of those kinds of things when you start out coaching because you don't think you'll ever go that long,” O'Keefe said. “Even though Grand Ledge is a decent sized high school, it's still a small town that only has 7,000 people. It has a big school atmosphere with a small town atmosphere. You have to have great kids. I've been fortunate that two of the guys who played with me have been with me for 30 years. Those are all factors that play into that type of longevity.”
Lynn VanDersteen has been with O’Keefe for 31 years and there's also Mike Rademacher, who is in his 29th season at Grand Ledge.
Prior to taking the job at Grand Ledge in the mid 1960s, O'Keefe had just finished his playing career at Central Michigan University.
“My high school basketball coach became the basketball coach at Grand Ledge,” O'Keefe recalled. “They had a coach in Grand Ledge who was head football, head wrestling and head baseball, Charlie Gorman. Charlie got killed in an automobile accident in the winter of 1966. In the spring of 1967, they had an interim coach. I was graduating from Central. My coach got me an interview and the rest is history. I was hired as JV football, JV basketball and head baseball coach."
He retired from teaching social studies after 40 years in the classroom two years ago and at that time was also head football coach in addition to his baseball duties. He stepped down as football coach three years ago after 13 seasons. The football team won the state title in 2000.
“I kept the baseball,” O'Keefe said. “I couldn't stay away cold turkey from the kids. I now I do it on a year-to-year basis. As long as the kids respond to me and I feel I'm doing a good job, I'll continue. It really isn't about records. It's the competition and the enjoyment I get being around young people. They tend to keep me young. It's not like I'm an ancient old fossil. I started teaching when I was 21. I'm only 63 years old. Forty years is a long time in any profession.”
Grand Ledge is having another successful season under O'Keefe. Tony Wieber, hitting .560 this spring, is going to Michigan State to play baseball.
“He's a great hitter, probably one of the most complete hitters I've ever had,” O'Keefe said. “He has a great arm and will be an excellent college player for Michigan State.”
Dustin Ditsworth, headed to Western Michigan, has been Grand Ledge's catcher the past four seasons and is batting .530.
Third baseman and pitcher, Nick Kissane, was an all-state quarterback for Grand Ledge, leading the Comets to an undefeated regular season. He's had football and baseball offers from colleges.
Holt High School, led by Brad Phillips, is 27-1 and a potential playoff nemesis.
“We lost two of our games to our sister school in the conference, Holt, which has only lost one game,” O'Keefe said. “They're in our district. We have to get by them. That will be no easy task."
More Baseball
Whenever the University of Detroit Jesuit High School takes the field, plenty of Major League scouts are on hand to keep an eye on Daniel Fields, a senior who has committed to the University of Michigan. Fields is a 6-foot-3, 200-pound shortstop who throws right and bats left and was ranked the No. 60 high school senior in the country by Baseball America coming into the season.
Jesuit coach Al Fernandez said there have been games with as many as 30 pro scouts watching Fields, who was hitting .638 with 12 home runs and 41 RBI in 24 games. He has walked 34 times.
Fernandez has coached Fields for four seasons.
“He's improved quite a bit (from last season)," Fernandez said. “He's much better. He's gotten bigger, stronger and quicker. He's been very selective. He doesn't swing at bad pitches. His work ethic is the best. He puts in a lot of time into the game. He's very smart.”
Fields' father, Bruce, had a 14-year career as a player and began coaching in 1992. He managed the West Michigan Whitecaps in Grand Rapids from 1997 to 2000 and later managed another affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, the Toledo Mud Hens. From 2003 to 2005, Fields was the Tigers' hitting instructor.
