Two generations of Haines on the same squad

If Maddie Haines wants to tell her aunt how things went in a Creston JV softball game, she doesn't have to look far to find her.

Just across the diamond.

Ashley Haines, 16, plays catcher for the Creston JV. Maddie, 15, the shortstop, is her neice.

"They're more like cousins," said Brian Haines, former standout Creston High School athlete and Maddie's father. "They've played softball together a lot, on travel teams."

Ashley is the daughter of Dan and Elaine Haines of Creston. Ashley was born 17 years after their youngest son, Jason. Now 34 years old, Jason is head girls basketball coach in Salisbury, Mo. Brian, 36, is 20 years older than his sister, Ashley. Mark Haines is the oldest sibling at 38.

"There's also 17 years between me and my sister," said Dan. "I told the boys it's hereditary, but they said I don't think so."

Dan, 58, recently underwent open heart surgery. He was just released from the hospital Sunday after five bypasses. A week ago Tuesday he suffered his second heart attack at home. His first was in 1999 at age 49.

This time, doctors found 70 percent blockage in our different arteries. An active woodworker now, Haines worked in the service department at Creston Motors for 24 years.

He said he and Elaine still see familiar faces around the Hawkeye 10 towns from their days chasing the boys' teams around southwest Iowa.

I particularly remember some of those basketball and baseball teams Brian played on in the late 1980s and, of course, the summer of 1990. That's when a 39-4 Panther baseball team took a 1-0 lead into the seventh inning of the state championship game against Spencer at Marshalltown.

Kurt Belger was pitching in relief of Scott Driskell, and with two strikes on the batter and two outs, the ball fired straight to Haines, the catcher.

"I didn't move my glove," Haines said. "I started to raise my arms to celebrate, then I turned around and the ump never moved. Never called the strike."

Spencer went on to get a bloop hit over the first baseman to tie it 1-1, and another base hit followed for the 2-1 win. Creston has not made it back to that game since, losing a lopsided first-round game to Cedar Rapids Xavier in its only other appearance in 2007.

In 1989 Creston lost only six games all season but fell to Council Bluffs St. Albert in the substate. That Falcon squad had Brian O'Connor, who pitched at Creighton and now is coaching the Virginia team in the College World Series. Notre Dame linebacker Brian Ratigan also played for St. Albert then. A year earlier, West Lyon edged a 31-8 Creston team in a substate at Storm Lake.

The teams Brian played on in basketball, also under coach Vic Belger, suffered hard luck as well. Two years in a row they were ousted in the substate final by the eventual state champion, Council Bluffs St. Albert in 1989, and Pella Christian in 1990.

"If they had kept us west my senior year, Red Oak went to state and we had beaten them," said Brian, who went on to play point guard at Iowa Wesleyan College. The group of Haines, Driskell, Scott Belger, Doug Schlapia and Clint Baker might have been the best Creston team not to play on a state tournament court.

A year after Brian graduated, Creston went 41-2 in baseball, but lost in the substate to Des Moines East at Urbandale. That was a special era in Panther baseball.

Brian and Meg (Kramer) Haines, an outstanding pitcher for some terrific Orient-Macksburg softball teams, are the parents of three children. Maddie is the oldest. Meg is the coach for the Creston Peppers dance team.

Now, Ashley and Maddie are building the summertime memories for this family. Merle Schaeer, great-grandfather to Maddie and grandfather to Ashley, and wife Jean also take in many of the games.

Brian, who coached basketball and baseball for a time at Orient-Macksburg, is learning a little about what his parents went through as sports parents back in the day.

"There are a lot more behind the scenes types of things," said Brian, plant manager at Farley's and Sathers Candy Co. "Things like taking kids to practice and games all over the place."

And, it's nerve-wracking to just watch, he's found.

"I'd rather be a player," he said with a grin.

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If you've noticed, a lot of schools are looking to fill various coaching positions for next school year. You can help, as Southwestern Community College will offer the coaching authorization series of classes beginning June 15. The 55-hour series runs through July 2 with some classes in Creston and others at the Osceola center.

Iowa law requires a person to have a coaching endorsement or authorization, whether serving as a volunteer assistant or a contracted coach at the junior high and high school levels.

If you miss this session, normally it's offered again in the fall.

•••

If you've driven by and seen me at some of the basketball venues around town the past couple of weeks, or the high school track, I've been on kind of a crazy, crash course preparation for my first serious athletic competition in more than 25 years.

I finally pulled the trigger and signed up for the Iowa Senior Olympics (age division 50-54). I got in two basketball shooting events and two track and field events.

So, next week I'll either be walking around with a smile on my face and maybe even a medal, or on crutches after pulling a hamstring.

I think my family is betting on the latter.