High School Baseball

Bob Mantell, the Treynor High School baseball coach, was the speaker at the Treynor Optimist Club.  Bob graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School, went to Iowa Western Community College for two years, and graduated with a degree in Economics after another two years at Creighton.  He was a left-handed pitcher in high school and college.  He is assisted in baseball by Nigel Horton and Thad Nelson.

Bob is the new Director of Financial Literacy at Treynor, working to implement programs in all grades, K-12.  Treynor is the only school in the state that will have a financial literacy program.

The baseball team this summer set a school record for wins, with a 23-8 record.  They won the Western Iowa Conference with a conference record of 12-2.

Bob Mantell started coaching four years ago.  His first year the team was 6-16.  This summer he had eight seniors graduate.  However the entire infield will return next season.

Bob believes that appearance makes a big difference in youth attitudes about the sport.  The players have two sets of new uniforms, one for home games and one for away games.  They also have team sweat shirts to maintain the image.  The new baseball field has been fantastic.  Bob says it is one of the best in Southwest Iowa.

Only Iowa and Delaware have summer baseball.  Other states play in the Spring.  The first day of practice is around May 1.  However, coaches can work with pitchers and catchers year round.  Practice is usually Monday and Thursday evening, after other sports.  They continue to practice in the evenings in the summer and have evening games.  Therefore, some youth can have day jobs during the summer.

This summer Treynor had a Freshman team.  They had games during the day, since the fields were busy in the evening.  Bob is looking forward to working in the school in his new job.  Then he can more easily talk to and recruit youth for an even better baseball team.