Baseball, softball clinic honors memory of Greg Swepston
Rob McCurdy
MARION — It was a day Sweppy would have loved.
With a cool breeze on a summer day on the sandlots at the River Valley Baseball for Youth complex on Ohio 309, more than 80 youth gathered to learn more about softball and baseball from folks touched by the coaching and wisdom of the late Greg Swepston, the former Marion Harding baseball coach and athletic director.
"Anything I know about baseball, I learned from him. Besides my parents, he’s the most influential man in my life. It’s nice to give him that recognition and that honor," clinic organizer Dave Gorenflo said. "A significant number of people here today are helping because they learned the game from him or had him as a teach or a mentor."
The boys of Swep ― Gorenflo, Dave Webster, Dave White, Jesse Hines, Harry Fry — gathered together Wednesday to hold a clinic in his name and give back to the youth of Marion County. But they weren't alone.
"He would have appreciated the caliber of the coaching and the people who participated because he was all about doing things the right way," Gorenflo added. "It’s nice to do something that gives the kids an opportunity to participate and have some fun and honor him and maybe teach a little about those who came before them who paved the way."
There were instructors like Tara Hines Davis, a 1997 Harding grad and a member of its athletic hall of fame who was one of the top softball pitchers the school ever produced. She came home to Marion from South Carolina to be a part of it.
"Greg was amazing. He was like an uncle to me," she said "I want to pick up the phone sometimes to call him for advice and his wisdom that he had. He always made me feel better than when I came in. You always left feeling better about yourself. To be able to do this in his honor has been so much fun and definitely humbling."
Another who came home to help was John Courtright, who graduated from Harding in 1988 when Swepston was the AD. Also a Harding Athletic Hall of Famer, he went on to star at Duke before pitching for the Cincinnati Reds.
Current Harding softball coach Brett McCrery, a former head baseball coach at the school like Swepston before him, was an instructor, too.
"It’s fantastic. Those guys who played for him, it’s an incredible testament to him that there were 65- and 70-year-old men who still called him coach. That’s pretty cool," said McCrery, whose father Scott McCrery was another of the boys of Swep from the late 1960s,
"You talk about a mountain of a man around here. When they said they wanted help and needed help, I was happy to do it because Swep did so much for me and my dad. Anything you can do to help give back to kids is obviously important, but when you add his name to it, it makes it a no-brainer really."
Current Harding baseball coach Jeff Bolander and his assistant Brett Hall were part of the instruction team along with former longtime River Valley baseball coach and current Ridgedale assistant Randy Leach. River Valley softball coach Phil Shepler helped out as did current college softball standouts and RV grads Shelby Westler of Ohio University, Alexis Stevens of Ohio Dominican and Sarah Lacher of Tiffin. Cardington All-Ohioan and Cedarville phenom Dana Bertke helped as well.
"It’s just fun being around these kids. If there is something that I can teach them, that’s great. Anything I can teach them, it came from Greg," Fry said.
Swepston loved all sports, but his passion was baseball. He starred at Columbus Aquinas in high school and played on the Ohio State freshman baseball team in the 1950s. After graduating, he began teaching in the Marion City Schools where he coached basketball and baseball.
"He was one of a kind," Fry said. "I’ve never met anybody like him since. He was more of a personal coach than he was a coach because he taught you more than just baseball. I remember that more than anything.
Fry was drafted in 1969 by the Cleveland Indians and he played in their farm system, but Swepston made the biggest impact on him as a man and a player.
"He’d have skull sessions," Fry said. "We’d be in the locker room and he would have an eraser board. He would say you’re playing in left field and there’s a guy on first base and the ball is hit to you, where are you going with it? Where are you backing up if you are a pitcher? He did this daily. When we went out on the field, we practiced it, too. He was an intricate coach.
"When I went to play with the Indians, I knew more than guys who came out of college and played for four years — because of him. Best coach I ever had."
Swepston worked for decades as a Major League Baseball scout and was a fixture at the annual National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y. Besides spending his entire career in Marion as a teacher, coach and administrator, he was active in several community and youth-based organizations before his death in 2020.
That's why Wednesday was so perfect.
"I always love to give back and to see the next generation and the next generation and the next generation come and be better than what I was given," Hines Davis said.
McCrery agreed.
"The game touches everybody and that’s what makes it good," he said.
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The Greg Swepston Gymnasium Campaign
Wednesday's clinic was a fundraiser for the Greg Swepston Gymnasium Campaign. The Ohio State University at Marion is renovating the gymnasium in the Alber Student Center and a group is working to raise the $250,000 needed to complete to project and name the space in his honor as a proud Ohio State alumnus who called Marion home for nearly 60 years.
Anyone wishing to donate to the project are asked to reach out to OSUM's Development Office at 740-725-6069 or 740-725-6156 or via email at gerber.10@osu.edu or somerlot.30@osu.edu. They will accept one-time gifts and there are programs where amounts can be pledged can be given at regular intervals over as long as a five-year period of time. Any amounts are accepted. The Swepston Fund number is 317597.
