Vermilion's Keck headed to coaches' hall of fame

Jeff Keck has 515 career wins in 36 years as a high school baseball coach. That's a lot of success, but it's not what drives him to stay in the game. "I enjoy it — that's the biggest thing," Keck said. "The wins are nice, but I think I've made a positive influence on kids and that's the main focus. Teaching the life lessons that high school sports gives kids is tremendous. That's the ultimate reason I coach. As long as I enjoy it I'll keep going." Keck, the head coach at Vermilion, will be inducted into the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame on Friday in Columbus. He will be honored during a banquet at the Hilton Columbus at Easton. His son, Brad, will introduce him. "I've been blessed to receive this honor," Keck said. "I've had a lot of good players and good coaches." Keck, 65 and a part-time teacher at Margaretta, has compiled a record of 515-319 while leading baseball programs at Firelands and Vermilion. He has coached the Sailors since 2002. His record at Vermilion is 376-205 with 10 seasons of 20-plus wins and seven conference championships. The Sailors have advanced to district play 10 times under Keck and made regional appearances in 2019 and 2021. The 2021 Vermilion team finished 26-7 and advanced to the Division II state semifinals, losing 4-3 to eventual state champion Akron Hoban. The Sailors defeated Sandusky Bay Conference opponents Sandusky, Perkins, Bellevue and Tiffin Columbian before outlasting Firelands 17-14 in a regional final in Bowling Green. "That year was really special," Keck said. "They were tremendous kids and it was fun going through that with them. We won some close games. It's one-and-out and you have to get some breaks. We were able to win some close games against some good teams." Coach Keck has coached 15 All-Ohio players, 37 Academic All-Ohio players and more than 40 athletes who went on to play college baseball. That list includes Andy Oliver, a 2006 Vermilion graduate who played for Oklahoma State and later pitched in the Detroit Tigers organization. "We had 30-some scouts at every game," Keck said. "That was cool going through that." Keck graduated from Danbury High School and Ashland College. He played two years of football at Ashland before becoming a student assistant coach. He began his teaching and coaching career at Firelands in 1983. He was an assistant football coach before taking over the baseball program. "Firelands had won zero games and had nine guys on the team the year before," Keck said. "That was a challenge, but we got through it. I knew some of the football players. They weren't necessarily baseball players, but they were good athletes and I could coach them. We won four games that first year. We got better and when we won 12 games I thought we had arrived." Keck went 139-114 at Firelands and led the Falcons to a conference championship in 1998. In addition to coaching baseball, Keck is now an assistant football coach at Margaretta. Polar Bears head coach Gary Quisno coached Keck when he was in high school. Keck thanked his wife, Tessa, whom he described as the definition of a "Coach's Wife." Assistant coaches such as Kurt Habermehl, Mike D'Egidio, Gerald Western, Tim Clark and Brandon Gilbert have also left their mark on the Vermilion program. "I've had supportive parents and my assistant coaches have been awesome," Keck said. "There was a period of time when I had the head boys basketball coach (Habermehl) and wrestling coach (Gilbert) on my staff." Keck has been active in coaches associations and is a member of the Northeast Ohio Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. "It's quite an honor," he said of his induction into the state hall of fame. "There are a lot of people I'm grateful for. I look back on all the good years and good teams. It goes by fast."