Baseball: Holm finishes record-setting career at Batavia
It's not always the wins and losses that matter most to Batavia coach Matt Holm, and that was true again Saturday in what turned out to be the final game of his 24-year coaching career at his alma mater.
Batavia took No. 1 seed St. Charles North to the wire in the Class 4A Schaumburg sectional championship game, losing a 4-3 heartbreaker to a team that outscored the Bulldogs by 19 runs in 3 regular-season wins.
That the Bulldogs went down battling comes as no surprise to anyone who has watched Holm's teams play - certainly not in the other dugout.
"Coach Holm does a great job over there and I wish him the best in his retirement," St. Charles North coach Todd Genke said. "I hugged him at home plate and said thanks for everything you've given to the state of Illinois for baseball. Once again you left it on the field. He'll be missed."
Holm always pushed his players to compete at their best, to give nothing short of their highest effort.
"It was just an honor playing for him," senior Tyler Kledzik said. "He gets into it with all of us and cares about every single one of us. We really wanted it for him."
As Holm walked slowly to the dugout following his postgame talk with his team, Batavia fans stood and cheered.
Holm took a couple extra moments in the dugout before meeting with reporters.
"I'll hit a wall at some point," Holm said. "I won't know what it's like until next winter comes around. I'll be doing something. I won't be sitting on my (butt). I'll probably be yelling at these guys (pointing toward an assistant coach walking by)."
Former player Alex Beckmann will take over for Holm, who finished 24-12 this season and 448-341 in his career.
"I wanted to keep coaching for another 10, 12, 15 years if I can," Holm said. "All of it has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. It was just something I knew was right at the right time. I'm not going to regret any of it. There's going to be days that are rough. The way it has happened with these guys in particular, I know they won't miss a beat. We'll be in good shape."