High school baseball: Vermilion's Jeff Keck retiring after 37 years and 531 wins

Vermilion's Jeff Keck is rounding third and heading home. Earlier this week Keck, who has been at the helm of the Sailors baseball program since 2002, announced his retirement. "The last few years I've thought about it," said Keck, who has 531 career wins over 37 years. "Somebody told me a long time ago that you'll know when it's time and I feel like it's time." Keck's Vermilion teams had 10 20-win seasons, won two district championships and made the school's only state tournament appearance in 2021 but he'll remember his players more for the adults they became than for their performances on the diamond. "I've had a lot of good kids," Keck said. "Not just good baseball players but good young men and it's been a lot of fun coaching them. As you go through the years you remember certain groups of kids. You go through and they graduate and you go to graduation parities and you go to weddings and you know you made an impact on them and did something positive." Keck, who coached 15 years at Firelands before coming to Vermilion, credits his coaching longevity to the support of his wife, Tessa. "My wife has been my rock," Keck said. "She's been supportive as heck. She comes to all of the games and sits through 40-degree days with 30 mile per hour winds. I've been lucky and very blessed to have her by my side." With his newfound free time, Keck said he and Tessa plan to travel and do the things they were unable to do all of the years he's been coaching. He was also a longtime assistant with the Sailors football program. Prior to the season, Keck was inducted into the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He's also been a member of the Northeast Ohio Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame since 2009. "It's not just me," Keck said. "I've been lucky to have great coaches, supportive administration and parents and good kids. All of that is what enables you to be successful." The Sailors finished 16-9 last season and bowed out of the tournament with a district semifinal loss to Clear Fork. "I'm leaving on a positive note," Keck said. "I think the program is in a good place." Keck's Sailors teams went 392-214, averaging 17 wins a season, and his Firelands teams were 139-114, giving him a career record of 531-328 and a winning percentage of .618. "It's been special for me," said Keck, a longtime Vermilion resident and a 1978 graduate of Danbury High School. "Coaching just becomes part of your life, year after year, that's how it was for me. I live real close to the school, I can see the baseball field from my house. The community and the school, the team, it just becomes a part of who you are. "I am going to miss the relationship with the other coaches, the coaches association meetings and building those bonds with the other coaches." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.