Bellevue High School coach Rob Sanders’ association with baseball began in 1965, back when he was playing Knothole League.
“I was playing for Covington Turners,” Sanders recalled. “I was 6 years old.”
At 19, soon after graduating from Holmes High School, Sanders snagged his first coaching gig in 1978 — again, with Covington Turners. It turned out to be his calling. He’s been a coach ever since. He’s also been a baseball umpire.
Fast-forward six decades, and Sanders has lived a baseball-packed life that stands as a testament to his unwavering love for the game. Plus, he has his Bellevue Tigers off to their best start in years, taking the area by surprise.
Sanders is the longest-tenured and winningest baseball coach in Bellevue history with 206 career wins in 20 years, one season derailed by the pandemic in 2020. He has coached the Tigers for two decades, beginning in 2005. That same year, he became the school district’s Family Resource and Youth Service Center coordinator. Five years later, he was Bellevue’s assistant athletic director. Sanders has also coached boys golf, girls basketball and volleyball at Bellevue.
“He was my first golf coach,” said two-sport standout TJ Sorrell, a hot-hitting shortstop and pitcher for the baseball team.
If commitments to Bellevue were a sport, Sanders might’ve been MVP long ago. Instead, he’s won educational foundation awards, a United Way Do Good Award and a Kentucky Colonel.
On the baseball diamond, Sanders has been a local coach of the year three times including last year when he was honored by the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference. He was inducted into the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame in 2021. He’s been a winner, a champ and a champion of the human spirit.
“He’s really good at making baseball fun,” said Sorrell, a team captain. “To me, he’s the most awesome coach and a really great person.”
Now, after 60 years immersed in baseball, 47 consecutive years of coaching and 20 years at Bellevue, Sanders is stepping away from all of it. It’s the beginning of the end, Sanders admits as he stares down a seismic change that will alter his life, leaving more time for family.
“I’m noticing small things that I’m not going to be doing any more,” the coach said. “Things like the schedule and preseason. The heart-tugging stuff will come later.”
Sanders, 66, has seven grandchildren. He’d like to coach at least one of them in the near future. In the meantime, his final game as Bellevue coach looms in late May, depending on postseason advancement. His Bellevue school district days officially conclude June 30.
July 1? A blank page.
“I have no idea what that day will be like,” Sanders said. “It’ll probably start like any other day.”
Spoiler alert. It won’t. On July 1, Bellevue will wake up to a Sanders-less reality — and vice versa.
“It’s kind of hard to imagine,” said Sorrell, one of two seniors on the baseball team. “He’s always been around.”
Sorrell Also Signing Off
As for Sorrell, his story arcs in parallel. The four-year starter and elite prep golfer with a verbal commitment to play golf at Brescia University is ending his baseball run alongside his coach.
“I need to keep working on golf and I’m going to be playing in tournaments this summer,” Sorrell said. “But right now, I’m concentrating on baseball.”
This was evident Tuesday during a 14-4 home victory over Williamstown, the Tigers’ fifth win in eight games. Sorrell went 3-for-3 with two doubles, a single and he was hit by a pitch. He also stole two bases. The 2024 NKAC Division II all-star upped his batting average to .423. His on base percentage is well over .500. He has nine steals in 12 attempts.
“He’s fast, so when he gets on base, he’s eventually going to be on second,” Sanders said. “We have a lot of guys like that.”
Though he is a key cog in the running game, Sorrell held the distinction of being the only Bellevue player caught stealing during the first nine games. The rest of the Tigers were 29-for-29. This is not a small sample-size fluke. The Tigers were 87-for-91 on stolen base attempts last season. Coming into this week, they had stolen 415 bases in 435 attempts, a 95% success rate, since the beginning of the 2021 season.
Bellevue’s on-base percentage this season, fueled by a patient approach at the plate, is approaching .400, thanks to a steady stream of bases on balls. This can make walks seem like doubles to opponents, if they aren’t careful.
“We are aggressive early in the at bat, then we like to make them throw pitches,” Sanders said. “Nobody around here has a huge pitching staff.”
It’s the sort of smallball strategy the Tigers have to deploy if they want to be competitive as one of the few small-school teams willing to take on bigger schools. There are approximately 110 boys at Bellevue grades 9-12. Sorrell said there are fewer than 30 boys in his graduation class, so talent is scarce.
Fueled By Chemistry
The only other senior on the Tigers is Jacob Bramel, who transferred from Bishop Brossart. His on-base percentage entering the week was .450. There are just five returnees on the roster and nine new players, making the Tigers’ respectable start a bit of an eye-opener.
Transfers are rare at Bellevue but another one, junior Jacob Berning from Newport Central Catholic, has been a find. Fitting right in, he has an on-base percentage hovering around .400 and is leading the team in steals.
“What I found out is this team has great chemistry,” said Berning. “Coach Sanders says this is one of the best teams he’s had in a while and I’m happy to be part of it.”
There are six juniors. The Tigers are getting quality at bats from most of them including Carson Scott, hitting .333, and much-improved Kayne Ross (.316) and Tristan Woodyard (.276). Woodyard hit .189 last year, Ross .152. Half the team includes sophomores, freshmen and eighth graders.
Scott was 2-0 entering the week with a 0.50 ERA in 14 innings pitched with 18 strikeouts. Scott is one of the few Tigers who plays baseball year-around.
Berning’s ERA was 3.77 after three starts. Freshman Wyatt Lewis had yet to allow an earned run in his first five appearances for pitching coach Matt Atkins.
Many of Bellevue’s players participate in other sports, which often doesn’t allow them to focus solely on baseball. Sanders is convinced that year-around baseball, the lynchpin of which is summer ball, is critical to a player’s quick development. That’s why he founded then coached the local Bluegrass Chiefs Baseball Club for two decades and won more than 500 games.
“Woodyard is one of those guys for us this year who is finally tapping into their baseball potential after playing multiple sports for so long,” Sanders said.
Historic Start
Despite heavy turnover and a youthful roster, Sanders has the Tigers off to their best start in 12 years. They were 5-5 after the first 10 games, which may not seem like much. But wins are hard-earned at Bellevue, where the likes of 36th District rivals Highlands and Newport Central Catholic remain on the schedule along with Boone County and Cooper and opponents in the highly competitive Doc Morris Tournament, an event the Tigers play in annually.
Last year, Bellevue played Beechwood, Scott, Cooper, Dixie Heights and Highlands in a three-week span to begin the season.
“To me, it’s not always about the wins,” said Sanders, who has a school-record seven small-school conference titles to his credit and a 36th District championship in 2010. “It’s about, are we better than the day before and are we significantly better at the end of the season and are we better people.”
As for that tough annual schedule full of bigger teams Bellevue doesn’t have to play?
“We have to teach our kids that they belong on the same stage as the best,” Sanders said. “We take our beatings, but the kids deserve the opportunity to play the best.”
Had Sanders taken an easier path and decided to pad his personal win total, the Tigers would never have come up with some of the biggest upset wins in program history over the likes of Highlands, NewCath and Covington Catholic.
It’s tough being an underdog but Berning is leaning into it. He loves the playing atmosphere of his new team.
“This school is small, but it makes it more of a family,” Berning said. “I have teachers I haven’t met who pass me in the hallway and say, ‘nice game yesterday,’ and that’s nice. I would say I’m having a lot of fun. There’s no drama. It’s just baseball.”
But it’s all winding down for coach Sanders and Sorrell, not to mention Bramel. For now, Sanders is focused on cherishing every moment with all of his players.
“This is an unusually high chemistry group of kids, and I think it’s going to be a fun year, and I absolutely do believe we can find a way into the regional tournament,” Sanders said. “Right now, I just want to enjoy this team and watch them be successful.”