Thursday night, Nov. 4 at CHS a large group of local baseball enthusiasts attended a meeting of CHS coaches and their guest Clinton alum, Nick Petree. Cardinal A.D. Alex Johnson opened the meeting thanking everybody for coming and announcing the recent baseball coaching change. Eric Silkwood has been the Cardinal head baseball coach for three years, but he is now the assistant coach with last years assistant John Lersch moving into the head coach position. Coach Gary Bowers will remain as an assistant. The switch was amicable to help Coach Silkwood with his young family.
Coach Lersch spoke about this coming year’s program. He covered a lot of expectations and things to do to prepare for the Spring season. He said there are already 46 young men showing interest in being a Cardinal baseball player.
Coach Lersch then introduced Nick Petree. Most remember Nick was a 3 time All-Stater for the Cardinals. He graduated in 2009. During Nick’s four years as a Clinton Cardinal the team was Conference Champs three times, District Champs three times and placed third in State in 2007. Nick hurt his pitching arm in Summer Ball before he attended Missouri State. He rehabbed from Tommy John Surgery in 2010 and started his college career in 2011 still on scholarship. Nick received a long list of awards during his time as a Bear, including 1st team All American. Simply put, Nick is the most decorated player in Missouri State history. He was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013. He had three successful pitching seasons in their minor leagues before he need for another arm surgery that forced him to give up his playing career. Nick has been coaching since, first at State Fair and now at Missouri State. He is in charge of player development. He gave a speech that covered a variety of positive thinking skills that can help a young player on the field and in life. He emphasized that baseball is a challenging sport where ‘failure’ is a constant. (For example, even great players fail 7 out of 10 times at the plate.) Finding ways to turn those challenges into opportunities is key. He said, “As a player you can not run away from the ‘storm’ but find ways to run toward it.” Nick also talked about goal setting skills. He had many baseball goals that he met, but he also had education goals. He wanted to finish his degree and he did, now having a Masters Degree. Nick gave several examples how he used positive thinking in his own playing career. Nick talked with the coaches after his speech but because of college recruiting guidelines was not able to talk directly with any CHS player at this time.
My visit with Nick was a lot of fun, we talked about his career, especially about how tough it was to hang up his spikes. He always knew he wanted to coach and now he is getting that opportunity. Nick’s parents are David and Becky Nelson. Thank you Coach Petree for coming back. We wish you well. Go Bears.
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Clinton School District staff are encouraged to complete the Google for Education Level 1 courses and take the certification exam to distinguish themselves as someone who has a mastery of theGoogle …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
With the start of the winter sports season, Clinton High School is excited to announce Mark Lovelace as the next Varsity Wrestling Coach. Coach Lovelace was a stellar athlete in high school and …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Historically the Fighting Cardinal teams have come home from MSHSAA State Tournaments with 26 medals, (1st through 4th place). It should be noted that other activities such as Band, Dance, Theater, …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Softball Champions: C1 Maysville over La Plata 4-0 C2 Marceline over Sherwood 4-1 C3 Blair Oaks over Chillicothe 3-2 C4 Washington over Rolla 11-0 C5 Lee Sum. W. over Francis H. 6-5 Volleyball …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Clinton: The Cardinals had four Cross Country athletes qualify for the State Meet at Gans Creek on Saturday, Nov. 6 in Columbia. They were: Senior Gage Mantonya, Freshmen Vyla Brown, Leah Kenney and …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
(Semi-final Games) 8-Man Drexel 62 Osceola 0 Archie 65 Appleton City 18 Jasper 58 Rich Hill 30 Class 1 Skyline 50 Lincoln 12 Windsor 36 Adrian 12 Class 2 Butler 16 Holden 8 Laf. Cty 42 Warsaw 28 …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
The State ranked Windsor Greyhounds go to 11-0 by winning the C1D4 Semi-Final game over the 7-3 Adrian Blackhawks, 36-12. The game was played at the David Powell Memorial Field in Windsor on Friday, …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
The youth football program has had quite the season. They sponsored both tackle football for grades 3rd through 6th and a flag football league. The Championship games were played Saturday, Nov. 6 to …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
What a fantastic night seeing so many sports teams and other organizations Monday, Nov. 8 at the Winter “Meet the Cards.” The gym was packed with students and parents. The flags were …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
The new 18 hole Clinton Disc Golf Course has been open for play for a few weeks but now the Back Nine has brand new Tee-Pads. A group of hard working volunteers worked for two days moving dirt, …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Richard Blahut: “In high school I played 8 man football in the middle of Kansas. I went to high school at Sharon (the school has since been closed). In the fourth game of the year (my Senior …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
I want to share a short story about my experience in Clinton, Missouri this past Sunday afternoon on Halloween. I dont know how many of you know Glen Wesley, but if you dont know him, you should. Mr. …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Birthplace: Poplar Bluff, MOYears in Clinton: 11 years Family: Married to my husband Rod for 25 years and we have 3 children. Emily who is at Truman State, Matt who is at the University of Missouri, …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
China is at it again. They’re building full scale mock-ups of our warships to practice for naval strikes. Forget climate change, this is where it’s at kids! Patton knew that someday the …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
United States Armed Forces Veterans talked about their time in the military, on November 9 in Clinton. Asked just prior to the National Veteran’s Day events, Army vets highlighted their …
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Meat production has been hampered by challenges such as rising freight rates, as well as a rise in corn and soy prices that make feed for livestock more expensive. Google.com reports that the beef …
