Back in 2013, I sat down with then future Top Coach guests, Wayne Meyer, head coach at Leroy (IL) High School, and Jim Collins, currently director of the Central Illinois chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and formerly the head coach at Normal Illinois’ University High School, to talk about a book that had recently been published called One Shot at Forever. This is the story of tiny Macon High School, just outside of Decatur, Illinois, about 40 minutes or so south of the Bloomington-Normal area, where Top Coach and the mother ship, Cornbelt Sports, are located.
Back in 1971, tiny Macon High School — and I don’t mean 500-tiny; I mean around 200-something-tiny — took on a field of 370 schools in what was then still a one class baseball tournament in Illinois, making it to the championship game. They were to become the smallest school to ever make the state final. A record that still stands. And what makes the story even better is that they were such a rag-tag bunch. And here’s a bit of trivia: The catcher for that team was current Atlant Braves manager, Brian Snitker.
In addition to talking about this remarkable story, Jim and Wayne also talk about their own experiences, how the high school game has changed, and how nearly everything surrounding the high school game has evolved.
Follow Wayne Meyer on Twitter.
photo credit:Â Speedway Photos/Gene Bowers
Intro Music: Matt’s Blues, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | RSS
Great discussion regarding the 1971 Macon Ironmen. Loved the book. I was an 11 year old boy growing up in Macon in 1971 and these guys were my heroes.