Another Belger joins Hall of Fame

CEDAR RAPIDS — An all-state infielder on Creston’s state runner-up baseball team of 1990 became even more decorated as a high school coach, and Saturday night Scott Belger became one of the latest inductees into the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

The oldest son of Vic and Pat Belger made coaching stops in Savannah, Missouri and Adel-DeSoto-Minburn before spending the most successful years of his coaching career in the Des Moines Metro Conference.

At Des Moines Hoover, Belger coached current Major League pitcher Jeremy Hellickson of the World Series champion Washington Nationals. In fact, two weeks ago he attended Hellickson’s wedding reception, when he told his former star pitcher about the upcoming IHSBCA honor.

From Hoover, Belger and longtime coaching partner and Creston native Dave Hartman moved on to Southeast Polk High School, where a dynasty was built that included state championships in 2014 and 2015. Scott retired as head coach when he was named an assistant principal at Southeast Polk after the 2017 season.

Creston connection

At that point Hartman, who assisted Vic Belger at Creston when Scott was a player, succeeded Scott Belger as Southeast Polk’s head coach. Scott continues to assist the program as a volunteer. Hartman also gained an honor Saturday as District Coach of the Year for the Class 4A Central District.

While Hartman has been a head coach at several previous stops, it was his work as Belger’s assistant that was mentioned by Belger Saturday night as a key ingredient to the success of his teams.

Holding the trophy signifying his Hall of Fame induction, Belger told the audience at The Marriott in Cedar Rapids while pointing toward Hartman, “If I could cut this in half, I would. Thank you, Hart.”

“I got choked up at that,” Hartman said afterward. “I knew Scott was destined for greatness back when he was a player, to borrow a phrase from Hayden Fry about Chuck Long. He was committed to the craft as a player, and just as committed as a coach. Initially when I joined him at Hoover, the plan was to help get him off the ground and then go and do my own thing again. Once we got to working together, it seemed like a great partnership and we just kept it going over at Southeast Polk.”

Both were associated with Creston baseball at its pinnacle. Vic Belger coached for 21 years beginning in the 1982-83 school year, and compiled a .711 winning percentage as the Panthers won 545 games and lost 221 during those years. Scott and younger brother Kurt Belger were part of a five-year streak beginning in 1989 when the Panthers won five straight Hawkeye Eight Conference championships. (Denison-Schleswig and Carroll Kuemper Catholic joined in the final year of that run in 1993.)

The height of the winning came in Belger’s senior year, when the 1990 Panthers were state runner-up behind Spencer. Scott Driskell, current Creston Community High School assistant principal and activities director, was an all-state pitcher on that team. When those seniors graduated, their record over their final two seasons was 80-8.

Scott was an all-state infielder who went on to play at North Central College in Missouri and Culver-Stockton College, where he graduated in 1995.

Coaching start

Scott began coaching at nearby Savannah for five years before moving to Adel. He coached ADM baseball for three seasons before taking the Hoover job in 2003. Four years later he was named head coach at Southeast Polk.

In his second year, Belger guided Southeast Polk to its first state tournament appearance, leading to back-to-back state titles in 2014 and 2015. He retired from coaching in 2017 with a career record of 570-345. His teams played in the state tournament four times and won two CIML conference titles.

Like his father in 1990, Scott Belger was named Iowa Coach of the Year in 2014 and 2015.

Vic Belger was inducted into the IHSBCA Hall of Fame in 1995. Vic and Pat were in attendance Saturday night to see the third-generation baseball and basketball coach from their family honored by his peers.

“That’s cool,” Scott said. “They have a list you can look at to see everyone who’s in the Hall of Fame, and I don’t see many father-sons on there. The cool thing about getting this at a relatively young age (49) is that mom and dad were able to attend.”

Hartman said he sees many of the same qualities of his father in Scott’s coaching style, along with a few differences.

“Scott is focused, intense, committed to excellence and prepared. He’s also feisty,” Hartman said. “Our players know we’re fighting for them. He’s as competitive as his dad, but Scott is also very analytical in how to do things, especially in training athletes. There’s just a lot more information out there than when his father coached, and we’re always trying to learn and share information with each other.”

Scott mentioned that the Vic Belger coaching tree extends beyond himself and Hartman, as 1986 graduate Casey Bryant was honored Saturday as Class 4A District Coach of the Year for his work at Western Dubuque in reaching the state tournament. Also, Johnston principal Ryan Woods coached against Belger many times as coach at Ottumwa after they were high school teammates as Panthers.

Also honored Saturday was Steve Shantz of Greenfield, a teacher and coach in Creston, as Southwest District Umpire of the Year.

Sustained success

Scott said he was influenced by his father and longtime Southwestern Community College coach Bill Krejci during his years in Creston. He said in taking over at Southeast Polk, he wanted it to be more than a “quick fix.”

“I wanted a program that the community could be proud of, and that is sustainable,” Scott said. “I think what helped achieve that is when Dave and I got involved with some local parents in starting the Rams Baseball Club for the young kids. In my first couple years I didn’t know the kids coming into my program, or where they came from. Having the youth program helped build the program.”

Belger could coach whatever style of baseball suited his roster in a given year. His first state title came in 2014 on the strength of pitching, as the Rams allowed only three runs in the entire state tournament. The following year, Southeast Polk set a record for most hits by a team in the state tournament in repeating as 4A champs.

“In general we’re always aggressive on the bases and our pitching and defense generally did a good job,” Belger said. “What I love in working with coach Hartman is that we came from the same program, he has a great knowledge of the game, and more importantly, he has a knack for using that knowledge to get performance from the kids.”

Belger said he learned early in his years at ADM, while struggling with a 3-11 record, to “become more demanding of the kids” after a conversation with a former coach.

The style seemed to work, leading to Belger joining longtime Waverly coach Joel Holst, former players Ron Anderson of Ankeny and Kory DeHaan of Pella, umpire Michael Botts of Davenport and contributor Sherry Freese of Davenport in the Hall of Fame class of 2019.

“I got into this because I like baseball,” Belger said. “I still enjoy working as a volunteer and with the softball program that includes by stepdaughter, Alexis. I’m fortunate that my wife (Margi Boord Belger) allows me to do what I love. It’s not easy or fun being a coach’s wife. My own mom may have set the record for most games ever attended by a mom. It was great to have my family there.”

Likewise, Hartman remains grateful to have Belger’s continued imprint on the program they have built into a CIML powerhouse.

“As an administrator and a volunteer coach, he has a little more flexibility for family things now,” Hartman said. “But, he’s still doing many of the same things he did when he was head coach. It’s in practice where he has such value to our program and our kids. We’ve always had a ‘We versus Me’ mentality in doing this. That’s why I got our whole staff in the picture they took for the district coaching award. We’re doing this thing together, and it takes everybody to do it right.”

And, how does a program reach that level of excellence?

Hartman and his staff led a baseball workout in the school gym Sunday evening, just a few hours after they had all returned from a long weekend in Cedar Rapids.

One pitch at a time. One game at a time. One season at a time, Scott Belger and Dave Hartman build winners.