Daily News-Record

Eventually, the monster ate Ray Heatwole.

Before it did, Turner Ashby High School's baseball program swallowed up 303 wins, 11 Valley District championships and three state titles - all under the stern and watchful eye of Heatwole, himself a 1963 TA graduate.

Heatwole masterfully handled coaching the most successful district program on the field. Slowly, though, the burden of summer programs, winter weight lifting, morning workouts and grooming John Wayland Field mounted on Heatwole. Friday, he announced his retirement.

"It's time for somebody younger to step in there and get things going," Heatwole said from his farm west of Harrisonburg. "We created a monster with all the things we've started. It just ate me up after a while. You can't keep up with all that."

Heatwole's most recent title came in 2002 and, to hear his players tell it, he hasn't lost a bit of his demanding edge. But the 58-year-old, self-described "disciplinarian" saw things differently.

Heatwole said he met with TA principal Delmer Botkin and athletic director Bobby Stevens with "a couple of weeks left in the season and told them I planned to step down."

For 17 seasons, split over two tenures, Turner Ashby's baseball program has borne Heatwole's mark - one of sound fundamentals and strict discipline.

"There's a system where kids pay their dues, work and earn their spot, and work their way up," Stevens said. "You know about expectations at TA in baseball? Every year you're expected to be perfect and then improve on it."

Heatwole graduated from Bridgewater College in 1967, and in 1972 he was hired to coach the Eagles' baseball team.

Heatwole's first tenure at Turner Ashby ran from 1974 to 1985, during which time the Knights were a remarkable 218-35-1. His teams won eight district championships, six Region II titles and a pair of state championships. His second stint with the Knights - from 1999 through 2003 - saw TA go 85-31-1, win three more district titles and the 2002 Group AA championship.

Tom Bocock played for Heatwole's 1975 state championship team and his 1976 state runner-up squad.

"I'm happy for Ray, but disappointed for the community over here at TA," Bocock said. "He's not just been a great coach, he's been a great role model."

Bocock is the father of recently graduated two-time all-state shortstop Brian Bocock, who helped lead the Knights to Heatwole's third - and now final - state title in 2002.

Tom Bocock expressed disappointment that his younger son, Kevin, a rising eighth grader, won't have the chance to play for Heatwole. He said watching the veteran coach work with Brian reminded him of his days as a Knight; Heatwole, he said, hadn't changed a bit.

"Same style, he'd get on you no matter who you were," Tom Bocock said. "He'd try to teach you so the next time you wouldn't make the same mistake. He was a hard coach, a demanding coach, but I think that's one reason that set TA apart all these years."

This season, the Knights lost just four games. It's a testament to Heatwole's high standards that he was not satisfied with that result - he said at least two of the losses were games his team should have "stepped up" and won.

Still, it wasn't one year that led to his decision to step away. Heatwole said he had planned on retiring last year, but the run to the state championship extended the season so far into the summer, he felt he would leave the school short-handed by walking away when it concluded.

Instead, he coached again this spring, guided TA to a 20-4 season and finished one win shy of a return to the Group AA playoffs. Then, he told his final team he was through.

"It was pretty emotional, but he stressed that it wasn't because we'd lost or anything," said Isaac Ostlund, a senior on the team. "He'd made up his mind before that. But everyone was sad to see him go."

Heatwole's whole life has been marked by consistency. He answered questions about his retirement over the telephone sitting in the same house he was raised in. Sunday, he and his wife, Lynn, will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.

Heatwole, who deflects compliments and praise as if they were pesky flies, passed the credit for his success to his players and administrators. But for the avid Knights' baseball fans, Heatwole himself is viewed as a major factor in the school's baseball glory.

Stevens is now charged with finding someone to take Heatwole's spot in the Knights' dugout.

"We're really going to have a hard time," Stevens said. "You don't replace someone like Ray Heatwole. You can't."

Legions of former players still revere the man they say brought both a wealth of knowledge and fierce sense of discipline onto the diamond.

For years, TA fans in right field have sat behind a banner that read 'Heatwole Country.' Heatwole, who relishes personal accolades about as much as he would a root canal, clearly remembers the first time he saw that sign.

"I was mad," Heatwole said. "You're daggone right. I could see the other people looking over there, and it gave them another reason to want to beat us."

People may have wanted to beat TA, but an overwhelming majority of the time, they failed. Heatwole retired with a 307-80-2 mark in 18 years as a high school coach, including one season at Spotswood, winning 79.3 percent of his games.

"He's just a sound baseball man that loves the game of baseball," said Spotswood coach Wayne Comer, a former major-league player. "He's a teacher of the game. I hate to see him retire. I think the game's losing a great person."

Heatwole, who wanted to be a football coach when he was a student at TA, left the Knights in 1985 to assist Brad Babcock at James Madison University. Promoted to head coach in 1990, he led the Dukes to a disappointing 102-80-1 mark in four seasons before JMU asked for his resignation.

"When you're young and trying to do it at the highest level, it was an opportunity that I couldn't turn down," Heatwole said. "It didn't go the way I would have wanted, but I learned from that experience."

He returned to the prep ranks in 1995 as Spotswood's head coach, then headed back to TA to assist his successor, Tim Clary. He took the helm again at TA for the 1999 season. Tim Clary, 181-93 in 13 years, was the Knights' only coach between the Heatwole eras.

Of course, Heatwole couldn't pay less attention to his win totals if they were written in a foreign language.

"That's fine, but I look more at how many kids come back and say, 'Hey, remember this,'" Heatwole said. "I enjoy that a lot more than numbers."

Likewise, Heatwole is reluctant to name the best players he's coached, for fear of leaving someone out.

Now, Heatwole, who intends to keep teaching at TA, will have plenty of time to enjoy baseball games and work on his land.

He's left the monster behind him - along with a legacy of success.
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Record Number: 109E3A3E5F2426FF