Kesler’s 16th season is his best

BY MIKE LONDON
SALISBURY POST

SPENCER — Bob Hundley had been coaching the North Rowan baseball team for 15 years and had won 136 games when he unexpectedly handed the keys over to his assistant, William Weaver Kesler Jr., just before the 1984-85 school year got under way.

That first season for the young Catawba graduate was a struggle. “Bill” Kesler went 4-16 and while no disappointed fans erected “For Sale” signs on his lawn, people weren’t sure how long he’d hang in there. But he fooled them. He’s been the man in Spencer for 16 years now, and has surpassed his mentor as the longest-running hardball coach in North history. Kesler owns a lifetime mark of 213-162.

Kesler, who was an All-Rowan County defensive back at West in 1969, continued his long and successful run this spring and is the Post’s baseball coach of the year for the second straight season. In voting by five county coaches and four sports writers, Kesler took top honors over runners-up Jeff Safrit (East) and Chris Cauble (West), who tied for second. Salisbury’s Tom Sexton also received support.

Kesler reached the 200-win milestone when the Cavs won at A.L. Brown in midseason. He got victory No. 213 in Zebulon when North took the first game of the 2A state championship series, before finally settling for a runner-up finish behind Greene Central.

Kesler, who has won four conference titles over the past six seasons, was actually below .500 for his career until 1996. But over the last five seasons, the Cavs have rolled to an impressive 109-41 mark. In 2000, led by the state’s 2A Player of the Year, Daniel Moore, the Cavs set the school record with 23 wins. They lost seven times.

“Oh yeah, this year was the best ever,” said Kesler, “due to the fact that we did something in the playoffs.”

North had never made it past the third round in previous years.

But this year’s team was special. North swept its Central Carolina Conference games for the second consecutive year and has won 29 straight against league teams. Eight Cavaliers made the All-CCC squad in a year in which North allowed a stupefying average of two hits per CCC game.

“That’s two hits — not two runs,” Kesler said proudly. “I thought we deserved everything we got in the CCC. We dominated.”

The Cavs of 2000 weren’t as speedy or as hard-hitting as Kesler’s 22-3 1999 squad, but they were a close-knit bunch whose four seniors — Moore, Nate Woodburn, Brad Canipe and Cass Jarrett — were exceptional leaders as well as players.

“There’s no doubt about that,” said Kesler, whose ball-playing sons, Joseph (11) and Weaver (13) helped the North cause as batboys. “If I had a bunch of real sorry players, I’m not going to be anyone’s coach of the year. But when you’ve got a kid (Moore) who goes 13-2 and could have easily been 15-0, hey, that’s a pretty good start on being a good coach. When you get down to it, maybe Paul Benfield (North’s pitching coach) should be coach of the year.”

Maybe, but it’s hard to argue with the selection of Kesler even in a year chock full of worthy candidates. Safrit won 24 games. Cauble pushed West into the playoffs. Sexton’s Hornets surprised by breaking even. And Dwayne Fink’s South team won more games than it was supposed to, including a 12-inning affair against Kesler and a 2-1 contest at West.

But you had to like what Kesler did. It wasn’t just a case of patting Moore on the back and waving a stream of guys home from third.

“I’m the ankle-taper, trainer, laundry man, bus driver and grounds crew all wrapped up in one,” Kesler chuckled during an interview late in the season. Then tossing a pile of junk toward a nearby trash can, he added, “and custodian.”

Kesler has coached it all at North — basketball, football, even tennis — but there’s no doubt his legacy will be what he’s accomplished on the diamond. The streaks of gray in his dark hair attest that he’s been doing this baseball thing for a long time. The winning streak he’s on right now suggests that he’s going to keep doing it for quite a while longer. Long enough to coach his kids. Maybe even another 16 years.

n

Mike London is the assistant sports editor of the Post.