Diamonds aren't forever

Weimar coach leaving baseball field for school's principal's office

June 28, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.

WEIMAR - Jon Wunderlich insists he had good teachers but it's obvious he was an excellent pupil.

Wunderlich was well prepared before he took his first and only baseball head coaching job at Weimar in 1996.

Wunderlich learned from Earl Hathaway while student teaching at Brenham and he got hands-on experience as an assistant coach for five years under David Cerny at Bellville.

"I think all good coaches steal from other coaches," Wunderlich said. "I remember being at a coaching convention in Waco and being in a hotel room with Jerry Bonewald, Jim Appelt and the three Cerny brothers. I was lucky enough to sit in there and listen to them talk about their practices and their game strategy. I was like a sponge. I wanted to absorb as much as I could."

Wunderlich was not only able to take in knowledge he also excelled at imparting it, leading the Wildcats to six state tournament appearances and five Class 2A state championships in 12 years.

Wunderlich has achieved more at the age of 40 than most coaches accomplish in their career, which makes his decision to leave coaching to become Weimar's high school principal all the more stunning.

"I've been taking classes for my principal certification for nearly three years," said Wunderlich, who was also Weimar's athletic director. "My kids are starting to get involved in sports. This will give me a chance to see more of them and be more involved in their lives."

Wunderlich's teams at Weimar won at least 20 games 10 times, they all qualified for the playoffs and he leaves coaching with a 281-87-4 record and enough memories to last a lifetime.

"I'm going to miss the kids and the day to day communication and the chance to sit down and talk with them after every practice and each game," Wunderlich said. "But in this new position, that's what I'm going to try and do with all the kids."

HEART MORE THAN TALENT

Wunderlich admits he was fortunate to coach talented players and was the beneficiary of outstanding pitching. But truth be told, you could count the number of players from Wunderlich's teams to continue on the college or professional level on two hands.

"We had leadership and that's the key," Wunderlich said. "You have to have leaders and not just you're super-talented players. You have to have people to get you going in the right direction with the right goal in mind. The great thing about it is we didn't have anything hidden about things like stats. You'd look up at the board when we got to the state tournament and see our stats and they were nothing special. Our kids wanted to play and they wanted to win for the team."

Wunderlich led Weimar to back-to-back state championships in his first two seasons and the bar was set extremely high.

"The expectation level was always high from the years we went to state," Wunderlich said. "We didn't start thinking about it in January, we started in October. We were determined to be successful and not just a little bit successful. We made sure there was no one who was outworking us or out-hustling us every day in practices and games. The kids really took that to heart. The other thing was I was fortunate they had the belief that whatever I told them was the right thing to do and they bought into that. That's a rare thing. But if I told them they could do it, they believed they could do it."

Going against the grain

Wunderlich seemed to have the knack for making the right move at the right time and he wasn't afraid to go against conventional thinking.

"I think he makes the average players better than the rest," said Pat Colon, who was the winning pitcher for Weimar in the 1996 and '97 state championship games and is currently the head baseball coach at Schulenburg. "He's a great motivator. I think that's the thing he had going for him. He just made us believe we could do it. It was 11 years ago when we won our second state championship and it's still a good experience for me. He did a great job of getting us to that situation. He always told us to have fun because you never knew when it was going to end. He always put that on our scouting reports. He was a blessing to have come into my life."

Wunderlich knows he won't be coaching next season but confesses neither he nor his wife, Beverly, nor daughters Kirby, who will be a freshman, Payton, who will enter seventh grade, and Shelby, who will enter sixth grade, fully comprehend the change, although Wunderlich, who always received an autographed baseball from his state championship teams, received a ball signed by his family when this season ended.

"I've been preparing for this for a while," Wunderlich said. "I'm not burned out. I like challenges and this is a challenge. It's not going to bother me as much as my wife and kids. It's been a part of our lives. Our life has been baseball and sports. It's going to be a big adjustment. They're used to jumping in a car every Tuesday and Friday and we're there. I'll miss seeing them after every game and getting a big hug whether we win or lose."

Weimar head football coach Tim Lewis has become the interim athletic director and either Brad Harbers or Charles Henke, who have been Wunderlich's assistants for the past nine seasons, will be announced as the head baseball coach in July.

Wunderlich will still attend Weimar baseball games next season but he'll arrive later, he'll leave earlier and he'll be sitting in the stands instead of standing in the third-base coaching box.

"I'm very fortunate to be in Weimar and go from a high school baseball coach to athletic director to principal," Wunderlich said. "I think there's a mutual respect between the community and myself and hopefully it continues. I've done what I wanted to do and I'm very pleased. People say I can always go back to coaching, but I can't think like that. I'm focusing on this challenge. My goal is to be the best principal that Weimar's ever had and if I don't make it I'll be disappointed."

Mike Forman is a sports writer for the Victoria Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6588 or mforman@vicad.com, or comment on this column at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.