Hiland honors new EDBCA HoF inductee Gibson

Hiland honors new EDBCA HoF inductee Gibson
Dave Mast

Tom Gibson greeted a host of former players and fans during the celebration inducting him into the Eastern District Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame Monday, April 24.

                        

For a decade, Tom Gibson built and coached the Hiland Hawks baseball program that became one of the premier small-school programs in Ohio.

From his inaugural season in 2008, when he led the Hawks to a state runner-up title, to the program’s crowning accomplishment, a Division III championship in 2016 to the team’s climactic nearly perfect season in 2017 when the Hawks went 31-0 only to fall 1-0 in the title game, Gibson commanded the program to an incredible 248-44 record.

On Monday, April 24, Gibson was honored by his current and former team players as well as many who have been an integral part of the program over the decade he coached as he was presented with a plaque inducting him into the Eastern District Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Appropriately, the ceremony took place in the multi-purpose sports facility that Gibson himself helped create, and the event was a who’s who of former greats who came to pay their respects to the newly crowned Hall-of-Famer.

Current coach Chris Dages started at Hiland coaching junior varsity under Gibson and said he learned much from his mentor. It was Dages who submitted Gibson for HoF consideration.

“They didn’t have to think very hard,” Dages said of the induction. “He’s certainly deserving. I think the most important thing I learned from Tom is you can never push fundamentals too hard. He knew how to prepare, and his practices were incredible, and that’s what practice is for. His guys were always so well prepared.”

Mike Yoder coached many years of summer baseball for the Hawks, helping to continue the tradition of instilling the fundamentals of the game in Hiland players. His Senior Little League teams earned three treks to the World Series in Maine, and he said Gibson simply taught the game the right way.

“I’m happy for Tom,” Yoder said. “It’s well deserved. I’m thankful for what he brought to the program, and I love to see the love he gets from his former players and others who were instrumental to the program. What he has built continues on.”

Eric Mullet, All-Ohioan and state record holder for consecutive innings thrown without giving up a run, was one of the players who returned for the celebration. He said honoring his head coach meant a lot to him and to all of the players, all of whom graciously hugged their former head coach when they entered.

“It’s almost hard to sum up everything Tom meant to this program and to each of us,” Mullet said. “I’m so thrilled for him and everything he accomplished. The impact he had on me and on all of these guys is incredible, and it’s awesome to be able to celebrate this moment with him and all of these guys.”

Mullet said he can remember as a kid in elementary school when Gibson would invite him to go to clinics and hit with the high school players, and it made his baseball experience one to remember.

Gibson’s accolades included nine Inter-Valley Conference championships, 10 sectional championships, five district championships and four state appearances, including a Final Four in 2012, two state runner-ups in 2008 & 2017 and Hiland’s lone state championship in 2016.

His individual honors during his tenure included being named Div. III State of Ohio Coach of the Year in 2016 and 2017. He was a seven-time Inter-Valley Conference Coach of the Year and was named the Eastern District Baseball Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 2008 and 2017.

But Gibson didn’t just leave an amazing legacy behind as a head coach. He also helped create the Hiland baseball complex, which is recognized around Ohio for its state-of-the-art multi-purpose building, which allows not only the Hawks but many other youngsters to come in and hone their skills.

Under Gibson’s leadership, Lehman Field became something special. He orchestrated the building of the new press box in 2012, the installation of the lights that same year and led the way for the program to build the brick backstop. In 2016 Gibson headed up the effort to erect the multi-purpose building that now stands as a cornerstone of the baseball complex.

“All that was accomplished wasn’t just me,” Gibson said. “It was all of the coaches and many other people in the community who helped make it special and supported us.”

He added that while he wasn’t from this area, he was accepted immediately and saw support from so many people it was almost a foreign feeling for him.

Gibson, who lives in North Carolina now, said Holmes County and Hiland will always be a part of who he is.

He said the biggest part of his success was the players.

“They bought into what we were selling and sometimes we were selling really hard,” Gibson said. “But it was only because I cared about them, and I knew how good our guys were and how good we could be and how much together we could be in order to get where we wanted to be. We needed to be more mentally tough, and the kids bought into it.”

Current Hiland senior Isaak Yoder said seeing all of the all-time greats coming back to celebrate the occasion was inspiring and heartwarming.

“It shows how much Tom did for the program, how much he meant to the community and to his players,” Yoder said. “Coach Dages has followed right in his footsteps, so it means a lot to us to be here for this.”

He said watching the former greats come back, many of them All-Ohioans whose banners are hanging in the hitting facility, is something that lights a fire under all of the current Hawks to work hard to climb to that level of play.


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