Post by The Admin on Apr 4, 2024 7:24:47 GMT -6
⚾ Years after retirement, Oklahoma coach gets surprise 900th win
www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-tuttle-baseball-coach-kirk-reimers-surprise-900th-win/60387462
www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-tuttle-baseball-coach-kirk-reimers-surprise-900th-win/60387462
TUTTLE, Okla. — A retired baseball coach got something bigger than a title on Wednesday.
After 23 years of coaching baseball and 899 wins, a former Tuttle coach got his 900th win. But he didn't know it was happening at the time.
"Unbeknownst to me, there had been some plans by Coach Breck Draper," said Kirk Reimers, the former Tuttle baseball coach.
Reimers retired in 2012, after 41 seasons of coaching. He won hundreds of games, but was just shy of a milestone.
"I was one short, 899," Reimers said.
But Tuesday night, he was thrown a curve ball.
"Twenty-three years of his life dedicated to high school baseball and all he has done for the game, and to be stuck at that one little win, I said, 'We can make that happen, and we need to make it happen,'" said Breck Draper, the head coach for Tuttle baseball.
Draper made it his mission to let Reimers get one final win. So he threw a change-up in the coaching lineup.
"Best kept secret around here. Everybody else knew it except me," Reimer said.
In a surprise, and with some help from the Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Association, they were able to make Reimers the head coach for the night. The game made it his 900th career win.
"It's one of those things you just understand. There are great people with golden hearts still in this world, and, yeah, to a lot of people, this doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but it's a really nice gesture to me and my family," Reimers said. "I'm deeply humbled by the fact that I got to do that yesterday and get that 900, and I'm not sitting at 899 for the rest of my career."
The surprise was also a teaching moment for the players.
"I think for our guys, maybe, it shows them what I was taught at a young age: Go out of your way to make someone's life better, and that’s kind of what we try to do," Draper said.
After 23 years of coaching baseball and 899 wins, a former Tuttle coach got his 900th win. But he didn't know it was happening at the time.
"Unbeknownst to me, there had been some plans by Coach Breck Draper," said Kirk Reimers, the former Tuttle baseball coach.
Reimers retired in 2012, after 41 seasons of coaching. He won hundreds of games, but was just shy of a milestone.
"I was one short, 899," Reimers said.
But Tuesday night, he was thrown a curve ball.
"Twenty-three years of his life dedicated to high school baseball and all he has done for the game, and to be stuck at that one little win, I said, 'We can make that happen, and we need to make it happen,'" said Breck Draper, the head coach for Tuttle baseball.
Draper made it his mission to let Reimers get one final win. So he threw a change-up in the coaching lineup.
"Best kept secret around here. Everybody else knew it except me," Reimer said.
In a surprise, and with some help from the Oklahoma Baseball Coaches Association, they were able to make Reimers the head coach for the night. The game made it his 900th career win.
"It's one of those things you just understand. There are great people with golden hearts still in this world, and, yeah, to a lot of people, this doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but it's a really nice gesture to me and my family," Reimers said. "I'm deeply humbled by the fact that I got to do that yesterday and get that 900, and I'm not sitting at 899 for the rest of my career."
The surprise was also a teaching moment for the players.
"I think for our guys, maybe, it shows them what I was taught at a young age: Go out of your way to make someone's life better, and that’s kind of what we try to do," Draper said.
