Newport’s baseball team opened its 2024 season with a 16-1, four-inning loss March 18 at Ludlow.
That’s OK because it was the Wildcats’ first game since May 18, 2022, a 15-4 setback to Dayton in the 36th District tournament at Bellevue – a 678-day hiatus.
“I would think that the kids that wanted to play baseball, that never got to play baseball last year, that
are on the team this year, are very appreciative,” former Newport coach Grady Brown said. “It makes me happy that they’re trying to revive the baseball program.”
First-year Wildcats coach Ian Plank – an outfielder, first baseman and pitcher for Newport from 2006-2010 – took the job last May.
“Overall, just having baseball back at Newport, I think, is incredibly important for our student body and our community,” Plank said. “From the moment I got the job, I had tons of alumni reaching out, wishing us the best of luck and offering their support.”
‘It really sucked’
Senior pitcher Aiden Foley missed not having baseball. He hit .556 as a sophomore in 2022 (20 hits in 36 at-bats.)
“Honestly, it really sucked,” Foley said. “ … I was really looking forward to junior season. The kids that did show up were really motivated, wanting to play. We just didn’t have enough students that wanted to play.”
Foley played Knothole baseball two summers ago, but he mostly worked on a makeshift mound. He wasn’t completely confident there would be a 2024 season.
“I was hoping that we were going to have a team,” Foley said. “I was honestly thinking about transferring schools to play.”
Isiah Paul is one of four seventh-graders on the roster. He attended the summer camp, where he relearned fielding skills.
“I was not getting my glove down low enough, and then I’d take a bad hop,” Paul said.
A rich tradition
Newport has won six regional titles (1940, 1941, 1955, 1957, 1960 and 1982), taken the state championship in ‘40 and ‘41 and captured 15 36th District trophies from 1974-2010.
But recent history has been painful – an 86-314 record from 2005-2022 with no winning seasons; the closest Newport came was a 9-11 finish in 2009.
Grady Brown is the closest thing to a Newport baseball historian. He and his brother, the late Ray Brown, coached the Wildcats from 1974-2004 (Ray passed away in 2008); Grady continued until 2010.
“When Ray and I took over that program, we took a good program and turned it into a great program,” he said. “We had some kids who could play, and we put a lot of time and effort into it.
“We did things in the summer before anybody else ever did it.”
The Browns worked at a local sporting goods store during the summers – they traded their wages for equipment – a pitching machine and a net were among the items.
Newport’s field is named after the Browns, and their numbers have been retired (Ray wore No. 28 and Grady wore 29.) You can find Grady by the school building.
“The kids know I’m up there,” Grady said. “I don’t bother them; I just sit there and watch.”
Another reason Plank took the job: he wanted to combat what he called Newport’s negative “incredibly unfair stigma about our kids and the character of our students there.”
“It’s just not true,” Plank said. “We have a lot of kids in there that are great kids; they work hard both on and off the field.”
Summer sessions
The first thing Plank did was visit school every chance he could; he signed up as many students as he could regardless of experience. The next step was to conduct a two-day summer camp last August.
“That was my first goal – how to get the student body interested and excited about baseball,” Plank said.
About 23 kids attended at all ability levels.
“We had a handful of kids that had never played before but were interested,” Plank said. “With those kids we just took things a little bit slower, really broke down the fundamentals.”
Voluntary Sunday workouts began last October. Plank said five or six who attended the summer camp are on the varsity roster.
Plank doesn’t talk about wins and losses – he wants to win every game he’s scheduled. His greater goal is getting the kids through the season – academically as well as improving on the field.
Foley doesn’t care a lot about the record.
“I’m just glad we have a team this year,” Foley said. “Every team’s going to have a rebuild phase at some point – whether it’s high school or pro.”