One last look back: Senske feels support

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Just over 24 hours after seeing his high school baseball coaching career come to an emotional end, Jim Senske spent yet another emotional day on Sunday with five senior baseball players who celebrated their graduation from New Ulm High School.

"I found out two things," Senske said. "I found how much they cared for baseball and for me and my family. I am really sad that it is over -- but it has hit my wife Katie harder than it has hit me.

"The picture of me walking out of Johnson Park (on Saturday) was pretty final. And that really got to her," he said. "I have some things to do yet, like our end of the year banquet and awards -- then I am going to coach in the Legion's All-Star game and not being a baseball coach any more will probably not hit me until that is over. My career is then done."

Senske said that while he no longer will be a head baseball coach in New Ulm, he will be a New Ulm baseball fan.

"I will be at Johnson Park but now it will be in a different role," he said. "I will be a spectator and a supporter of the new coach. You cannot spend 40 years of your life without hoping that it still remains strong."

Senske said after the season-ending 4-1 loss to Hutchinson Saturday, "going into the high school locker room was the most emotional thing that I have ever gone through. I had 18 ballplayers that were in the locker room sobbing, and they would not go home.

"They stayed there for 45 minutes and I had to eventually tell them 'guys, you need to go home to your families. The sun will come up tomorrow -- you need to go home to your families and I need to go home to mine,'" he said.

He said that the players eventually left, but he had never seen the kids cry like they did.

"I think that they wanted to win so badly for me that it was devastating to them when they lost," Senske said, explaining to them that they played not for him, but for themselves and the school.

WANTED TO COACH: When Jim Senske came to New Ulm in 1961, he did so because he wanted to be a head baseball coach. Little did he realize that he would become the Eagle head baseball coach in 1964 and go on to become Minnesota's all-time winningest coach in its history.

"My first 10 years of coaching were outstanding," he said. "My second 20 -- the expectations were awful high and sometimes you did not meet them and you caught criticism and that was something that goes with the territory of being a coach.

"The last four years of baseball, I have had some of the most pleasant and outstanding kids. I don't know if they had the most baseball talent, but they worked hard," Senske said. "I was surrounded by excellent parents and it was extremely fun. Man, I have been blessed with outstanding people, outstanding characters. "

CAREER ENDS WHERE IT BEGAN: Senske said that it was fitting that his coaching career ended at Johnson Park where it had begun 40 years earlier.

"I am glad that if it had to end, it ended at Johnson Park," he said. "One of the things that I am amazed at was the number of fans that we had, even though we were in the loser's bracket."

LIFE IN TEXAS: Last winter while Senske was in Texas, he had offered to be a volunteer high school baseball coach at Westico High School, but before giving an answer, they had to see his credentials.

"I think that it might give me something to do in the winter in baseball," he said. "But I will be back in New Ulm in April pulling for the Eagles."

STARK HAS EQUIPMENT STOLEN: Last week Stark played a baseball game in Redwood Falls and on the way back, the team stopped in Morgan for a little over an hour.

When they got ready to leave, they discovered that all of their baseball equipment had been stolen.

Their equipment included 20 wooden bats, some with the Stark Longhorn emblem on them, helmets with the Stark logo, a catcher's mitt and mask, and the team medical kit.

Stark manager Cory Haala said that some team members also lost their spikes, gloves or Stark jerseys.

Haala said that the equipment was worth over $2,000.

Haala said that he had to scrimp and used some of the Stark Bi-County equipment. "I have been holding off on ordering stuff, but there comes a point to where I have to order new equipment."

Anybody with information about the missing baseball equipment should contact either the Redwood or Brown County Law Enforcement Center.

ALL-JOURNAL BASEBALL: Area high school baseball coaches are asked to send in their nominations for the All-Journal Area Baseball team as soon as possible. Nominations should include this year and career stats, awards won and coaches comments.

HOFFMANN HIGH PICK: The current issue of The Hockey News has the NHL draft preview in it and rates New Ulm's Jamie Hoffmann as the 96th best North American skater. It also projects him to be an early fourth round pick of North American hockey players.

JOHNSON TO ELLSWORTH: New Ulm High School third baseman Derik Johnson has accepted a baseball scholarship to Ellsworth College in Iowa Falls, Iowa.

SECTION CHANGES: Next year, Section 2AAA will be a little different for baseball. Gone will be Shakopee and Chaska and in will be Orono, Waconia and Mound-West Tonka.

FLOR TO HAMLINE UNIVERSITY: Angie Flor, a 2003 graduate of New Ulm High School, has committed to play basketball at Hamline University next year.