Jim Ned SportsNation

The Birth of Two Programs By Chris Holson

The decade of the 1990s was young, and a strong Jim Ned summer league baseball program proved the need for a school sponsored UIL baseball program. It was still a relatively unique thing at the 2A level as less than half of schools in that classification were participating in UIL baseball. The support from parents was very strong and the Indians already had the right coach on staff to breathe life into the new program. The football field and field-house had recently been moved from the area near highway 83 (at the site of the current high school) to its current location, so it made sense that the baseball field would be in the same area.

When the board approved the baseball program in the Winter of 1990, athletic director Jim West knew things had to happen fast to be playing baseball in the Spring of 1992. There was no field, no equipment, no coaching staff. Coach West knew he had the coaching thing covered as he had come to Jim Ned for his first head coaching job from Abilene Cooper where he was an assistant baseball coach to Andy Malone at Cooper when the Cougars won the 5A baseball state championship in 1987.

As West was building up the football program he was also having to develop a baseball program from scratch. The Texas Rangers were building a new field as well and Coach West decided to design a Jim Ned field with the same infield dimensions as The BallPark in Arlington. The infield was cavernous with 60 feet of grass from the baselines to the fence and that same distance behind the plate. Jim Ned catchers and first basemen soon learned to block all balls at all costs to prevent multiple sprints back to the fence! Any overthrow to first base became an automatic extra base and maybe two if the first baseman jogged to retrieve the ball. Opposing catchers despised visiting the Jim Ned Field, and it became a huge home field advantage for the new Indian baseball program.

As the baseball program was born so was the softball program. Spring 1994 was the inaugural season of Lady Indian softball. At that time there was not sufficient usable school property nor sufficient time to create a new softball field on campus. Bald Eagle field in Ovalo to the rescue.

The Ovalo field was the location of the birth of softball in the Jim Ned Valley in the 1980s. Charles Parnell had experience with softball and was an easy choice to begin the program. This is where yours truly comes into the story. It was my first year as a teacher/coach at Jim Ned

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High School. When the Athletic Director that just hired you asks if you will be an assistant in softball, you say, “yes sir”! I wasn’t too worried however, because Coach Parnell was an experienced coach and I would just be following his instructions. There was a large number of girls who had been playing softball in the summers, many of whom played Lady Indian basketball and practice was planned to begin after basketball season ended.

GO INDIANS!

The Lady Indians were runner-ups in the basketball district race that season behind the Winters Lady Blizzards and barely escaped with a Bi-District win vs. Goldthwaite in Brownwood. The Lady Indians then caught fire and went on to win the first state championship in school history in epic fashion.

As great as that historic run was it meant this “greenhorn” had to get the season underway without the tutelage of Coach Parnell. There were a handful of young ladies ready to get that inaugural season going, so we all jumped in with both feet. I coached them like I knew to coach baseball and it was already district time by the time the state champion basketball girls (and coach) joined us. I’m not sure how much the young ladies learned about softball that first season of UIL softball but it was definitely memorable and it was fun to be a part of that first season of Lady Indian softball.

Jim Ned Sports Nation will once again broadcast softball and baseball games this spring and we will be looking to provide assistance (financially and otherwise) to all of our athletic programs. As always, we will be delivering our yearly scholarships to some amazing student athletes this Spring. If your business wants to join the JN Sports Nation family with a sponsorship please contact us at JNSportsNation@gmail.com