Vinton's Struve notches 500th coaching victory

VINTON - Off the top of his head, Jim Struve couldn't tell you how many years he has been head baseball coach at Vinton-Shellsburg. That's a good thing because it means he's not counting.Just coaching a game he loves.“Oh, man,” he said. “Not sure. Let's see, I know I started in 1992.”That's 27 years, and a neat little milestone to go with it. A double-header sweep of Wamac Conference foe Independence last week gave Struve his 500th career victory.He's the 57th coach in state history to hit that plateau. Other recent members of the 500 club include West Delaware's Mike Morrison and Cedar Rapids Xavier's Dave Schemmel.“You know, I'm extremely pleased to be able to achieve that with this group,” said Struve, 500-304 in his career through Monday. “We've had some very good players here. I'm truly blessed to have had very good players and very good assistant coaches over the years.”Struve's best player was Wes Obermueller, who played on Vinton-Shellsburg's 1998 Class 3A state championship team and had a brief pitching career in the major leagues with Kansas City and Milwaukee. He also coached two other pitchers who played minor-league ball in Josh Merino (Rockies) and Josh Kauten (Tigers).Former Viking Desi Druschel is head coach at Mount Mercy College. V-S graduate Nate Forsyth coached at Ellsworth Community College and is now the school's athletics director.Vinton-Shellsburg also made state tourney appearances in 2000 and 2009. This Vikings team has gotten off to a 4-1 start behind a lot of returning talent from a season ago.Josh Ferguson has seven extra-base hits (three home runs) and 11 RBIs in five games. Drew Pearson is 12-for-17 with seven stolen bases.This could be a memorable season for Struve for other reasons than reaching 500 wins.“To me, it's about developing positive relationships,” Struve said. “I have a passion for baseball."