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Thursday, April 28, 2005Coaching Change |
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| The East Peoria Scrappers today announced that Chris Shepherd has been added as a coach, replacing Andy Eder. Chris will graduate this spring from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, after attending and playing baseball at Illinois State University for the three previous years. As of this writing, Shepherd is batting .309 with 35 RBI in 59 games for Lee. Chris is from Normal, Illinois, a 2001 graduate of Normal Community West High School, and also played in the CICL in the summer of 2003. |
Monday, April 25, 2005Schedule Change |
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| The Tuesday, June 21 game between the Quincy Gems and Twin City Stars has been moved from Illinois Wesleyan to Illinois State University's Redbird Field. |
Wednesday, April 20, 2005Scrappers Introduce Coaching Staff |
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| One of the new entries in the CICL for 2005, the East Peoria Scrappers, announced their coaching staff for this season. Leading the staff will be Nate Metzger; assistants will be Andy Eder, Aaron Burd and Ryan Britnell.
Metzger is a full time baseball professional who brings plenty of experience to the East Peoria Scrappers. Coach Metzger graduated from NAIA Greenville College (IL) in 1994 where he served as captain of the baseball team and earned All-District honors as a catcher. In his four-year career at G.C., the team compiled an 87-67 record. In 1995, Metzger became the head coach at Gridley High School and Junior High. In 1998, he served as pitching coach for Bloomington-Normal American Legion team, which compiled a 41-6 record. In the summer of 1999 and 2000, Metzger coached elite level college players with the Twin City Stars of Central Illinois Collegiate League. The Stars won 28 games with Metzger as manager in 2000(the 4th most victories in a season over the 22 year history of the Stars). In the summer of 2001, Metzger was selected to serve as the pitching coach for the McDonalds/Mitsubishi Comets 13-14 year old select team that traveled to Cuba. Metzger has been the coach of the Scrappers, which prior to joining the CICL was a summer collegiate team that won the NABF World Series in 2004. The Scrappers have gone a combined 109-51 (.681) in three seasons. Nate also serves as the head assistant at Normal West High School 156-61 (.719) over the last six years, and at Parkside Junior High 214-66 (.764) over the last seven years. In 2002, Metzger received the AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Award, one of only two tenths of a percent chosen from over 300,000 nominees. Nate is co-owner and head instructor of The Practice Factory; Bloomington-Normal’s only indoor baseball/softball instructional facility. Metzger also works camps around the state and continues to travel nationwide to attend various coaching clinics in addition to the scouting work he does for the Atlanta Braves. Nate and his wife Sarah reside in Normal, IL. Eder helped coach the Scrappers in 2004 after a 4-year career as a player at St. Louis University, capped by a senior season where he led the team with a .310 average and was second on the club with 27 RBI, including 17 with two outs, despite missing the last nine games with an injury. Eder is also a graduate of Bloomington's Central Catholic High School where his .611 average his senior year broke the school and conference records. He also drove in 49 runs that year. Eder's main responsibilities with the Scrappers are working with the hitters and coaching first base. Pitching Coach Aaron Burd enters his first season with the East Peoria Scrappers as an assistant coach. Before joining the Scrappers staff, Coach Burd was an American Legion coach at Farmington for three years. He just recently graduated from Knox College with a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in sports studies. He is enrolling at Western Illinois University in the fall to pursue a masters degree in Sports Management/Physical Education. As a player, Coach Burd was a four-year letter winner for the Knox College Prairie Fire as a relief pitcher. Ryan Britnell has been an assistant with the Scrappers for the past three years. Britnell is a Normal West High School graduate and played 2 years at Lincoln Land Community College, winning a national junior college championship while there. He and his wife, Nicole, and daughter, Emma, reside in Normal. |
Sunday, April 3, 2005Bombers 2005 Hot Stove Dinner/Auction Set |
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| The Dubois County Bombers will hold their first annual Dinner/Auction on Thursday, April 21st at the YMI Club, 421 Van Buren St, in Huntingburg. The evening festivities will start with a 6:00 p.m. Social followed by Introductions at 6:50 p.m. and Dinner at 7:00 p.m. There will be several speakers on tap including Manager Chris Erwin, Coach Rick Parr, President/General Manager Jack Tracz and Owner/CEO John Bigness. Door prizes and an auction will round out the evening featured by 4 tickets to each of the 3 game Cub-Yankee series at Yankee Stadium including Free parking and Stadium Club passes.
In addition to a great meal, attendees will receive 2 Complimentary reserved seat tickets to the June 15th doubleheader vs. the Twin City Stars. Dinner tickets are priced at $25.00 for Adults and $15.00 for Children 12 and under. The Bombers are defending champions in the Central Illinois Collegiate Baseball League (CICL), one of the premier wood bat leagues in the country and play their home games at Huntingburg’s League Stadium. Bomber President and General Manager Jack Tracz said, “We anticipate a fun night of baseball where people can meet members of the Bomber management and ownership, learn about CICL league history and the 2005 player roster and hear our plans and promotions for the upcoming season. In addition to the Yankee-Cub tickets we’ll have a Ken Dilger autographed NFL football and an autographed Stan Musial painting wall plaque.” |
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