Baseball: Batavia's Holm will step down after 24 seasons

Longtime Batavia baseball coach Matt Holm announced publicly on Thursday what his players and some close to the program have known since January: this will be his final season.

Holm, 47, is in his 24th season at his alma mater. He took over as Batavia's head coach in 1992-1993 at the tender age of 24 following one year as a teaching assistant and assistant coach to Bill Seiple at Naperville Central.

The Bulldogs are 9-6 through Thursday's 6-2 home loss to St. Charles East. Holm's career record at Batavia stands at 433-335 (.564 winning percentage). He has led the program to 4 regional titles, 2 sectional titles and an appearance in the Class AA state finals in 2004.

Asked his motivation for stepping down, he said "Time. Time is the thing ... I've got plans. At some point I may sit down and talk about it. I really don't want to talk about it too much now.

"(The players) all know. I don't know if it's had an effect on them. It doesn't seem to. They want to play and they want to do well. I don't think it's a downer for anybody."

The 1987 Batavia graduate said another program alumnus, varsity assistant coach Alex Beckmann, is poised to take over as head coach. Beckmann is a 2008 Batavia graduate who hit over .500 in three varsity seasons and went on to enjoy a successful college career at Northern Illinois.

"Beck will take over," Holm said. "That was the first thing I made sure of before I announced this publicly."

Holm and his wife, Lori, are parents to three children, the last of whom is heading off to college next year.

"I'm trying to enjoy every moment of it," he said.