Crescent-News.com - C-N baseball awards - It's Fairview, DHS again

By BRUCE HEFFLINGER

& TIM McDONOUGH

Baseball honors from The Crescent-News has a familiar ring to it.

A Fairview player and the Defiance head coach have been selected winners of the 2009 Crescent-News Baseball Awards as voted on by coaches in the six-county area. Eric Sims was named the top player while Tom Held has again been chosen best coach for the season.

A year ago it was Fairview's Ryan Radcliff claiming the honor as the C-N Player of the Year after setting a number of school records. Sims did the same this season during a campaign in which he threw 35 consecutive shutout innings, third best in Ohio High School history.

"This is a surprise," Sims said of winning the award. "There are a lot of good players in the area like Dace (Kime) and Jeremy (Robinson) which makes this special."

Sims received half of the first-place votes from the 14 ballots that were returned by area baseball coaches. Kime, a Defiance High School junior, was second in the voting with Robinson, a Bryan senior, third.

"I worked hard," Sims explained about his impressive numbers this year. "A pitched a lot in the summer and I played ball in the fall. I just tried to get better all the time."

Sims was 8-2 on the campaign with an ERA of 0.29. In 72 innings, Sims allowed just three earn runs with 110 strikeouts and 18 walks. At the plate, Sims had a .347 average with six home runs and 21 RBI.

"He's definitely deserving," Fairview coach Andy Singer said. "To be recognized as the top player in the area and the state (first-team honors) is a great feat.

"This had to be one of the most satisfying years of goal-setting. He set goals of wanting to be all-state and he made that. Then add this award, it's something he can take with him the rest of his life and it's very deserving."

Sims established school records for innings pitched, ERA in a season, ERA in a career (0.98) and win-loss percentage (19-2 record, 90.5 percent) for a career at Fairview breaking records previously held by Larry Schultz, Dusty Bergman and Eric Langham.

"It took a lot of hard work to get those kind of stats," Singer said. "Credit also goes to those behind him. They had to make plays and they were able to do that for the most part.

"Travis Wiles is another reason why he was successful," Singer continued about the Fairview catcher. "They worked well together, helping contribute to the winningest class in school history."

Sims, who is playing American Legion ball with the Napoleon River Bandits, will continue his baseball career at St. Joseph's (Ind.) in the fall.

"I had a lot of help over the years," Sims noted. "Bill Jones helped me when I was younger, Tom Held helped and coach Singer worked with me in the gym in the winter. They all helped out.

"Now I want to go contribute my freshman year at St. Joseph's. They have a good program."

The top highlight for Sims this season was a no-hitter against Patrick Henry, the eventual Division IV state champion. The Apaches were 11-0 winners in a five-inning game.

"That just shows his potential," Singer said. "If he wouldn't have been as successful as he was this season I would have been disappointed. Everybody wants to do well but he wanted to be all-state. There was no doubt in my mind he'd work to get it. From day one you could see in his eyes it was a goal he wanted to attain and he was able to do it."

Meanwhile, Held may have to buy a new mantle after winning the C-N Coach of the Year award this year for the sixth time in his 11 seasons at Defiance, after winning it three times during his tenure at Bryan.

The DHS mentor, who led Defiance to a 24-4 record, a third straight WBL title and to the D-II district finals, would be the first to tell you that winning it never gets old. He would also tell you that that the older he gets, the more he appreciates what it truly means.

"It's the ultimate compliment when the guys you coach against and work with a lot during the offseason think that much about our program," said Held who is 275-50 in 11 years at Defiance. "It's very humbling, especially when you consider all of the coaches who had great years in this area.

"Every year you get older, you really appreciate things like this even more," continued Held. "It's really a great, great honor. This award means so much because it's your peers who vote on this. The Crescent-News award is very special because of that reason."

Held also knows that there were many deserving coaches other than himself in the Defiance six-county that could easily have won the award this season.

"What Shawn Sunderman did at Patrick Henry in his first year, all he did was win a state title, what an unbelievable job," said Held. "Brent Renollet at Tinora also did a heckuva job. For him to get most of his players right when the season started and to get to regionals ... wow. I also think people don't realize what a job Paul Bishop has done at Pettisville. What he's done there is absolutely unbelievable and they had another great year this season. And those are just some of the guys."

Last but not least, Held knows that an award like the C-N Coach of the Year award is really a team award, and that everyone involved in the program all earned it.

"All coaching award are team awards. We all know that because if your team doesn't play well there's no award," said Held. "It's a combination of your players, your assistant coaches, parents, coaches all the way down to T-ball and everyone who has touched their lives.

"I know I have the title of head coach, but I have to give credit to all the coaches because it really is a collective effort from all of us that try to keep the program at a high level," concluded Held. "This program is bigger than any one individual and I think everyone involved all through the years understands that."