Team Jenk wins the Class 2A state baseball championship

DES MOINES — A legendary high school baseball coach with terminal brain cancer rides in a donated medical RV three hours to see his team play its state championship game.

He is lifted into a chair in a stadium suite, his wife by his side. He speaks to his players pregame and even manages to sign the lineup card, even though he's paralyzed on one side of his body.

The crowd in the stands turns towards him and cheers mightily as he's introduced over the public-address system. He waves and gives a thumb's up sign.

The game then starts, and his guys go out and score nine runs in the first inning, surviving a late rally by the opponent and winning it all. For him.

A Hollywood movie? Perhaps someday.

Reality? Yeah, it happened Saturday afternoon.

'I wish I was out there,' Tom Jenk Jr. said, as he watched Dyersville Beckman players and coaches celebrate a 9-6 victory over Carroll Kuemper in the Class 2A title game at Principal Park. 'That's what's going through my mind right now.'

Though he physically hasn't been able to be out there with them this season, other than attending a few games and practices, Jenk has been in their hearts every minute of every day. Everyone's hearts, really, since he was diagnosed in December.

They weren't the Blazers so much as they were Team Jenk, a bunch of kids on a mission, not to mention a community rallying Twitter hashtag.

'I know we are just glad to get it done for him,' said Beckman's Riley LeGrand, who had two hits, two RBIs and two shutout pitching innings in relief. 'It's just awesome to get him here on Championship Saturday. That's always his goal, to be playing on this day.'

The 64-year-old Jenk rode the 'Caring Coach' from Dyersville to Des Moines, a tricked out recreational vehicle with a lift and medical personnel included. It is provided for those in need via Paramount Paramedic, a company based in Dubuque.

'He called (before the tournament) and said 'Fred, I've got good news and bad news,'' said Fred Martin, Jenk's longtime assistant coach who took over head on-field duties for him. 'He said 'The bad news is I can't make it. But the good news is you've got to win because Paramount is bringing me down for the championship.' I just said 'Thanks a lot, TJ, for letting me know that.''

Only one of Beckman's nine first-inning runs was earned, thanks to a shortstop throwing error past first. Starting pitcher Tyler Laing walked five guys and hit another in a laborious, 52-pitch inning.

Beckman (32-11) batted around before getting its first hit, a two-run LeGrand single. Joel Vaske followed with another two-run hit.

'We just wanted to come in here and win at any cost. That showed,' said Beckman starting and winning pitcher Jackson Bennett. 'We came down here, got up early, kind of got into some trouble, but pulled it off.'

Kuemper (22-13) made things interesting with a five-run sixth inning, but LeGrand came on to quell things just in time. Shortstop Seamus O'Connor squeezed a line drive to officially end it, a dogpile in front of the pitcher's mound ensuing.

Jenk pumped his right fist in celebration, pounded the table in front of him with his right hand and pointed to coaches, giving them another thumb's up.

'I don't know where to begin,' LeGrand said. 'Glad we got it done. We got off to a great start, then kind of coasted. We didn't play the way we wanted to (to) end it, but we got the job done. It was a lot more interesting than we were hoping. We played our hearts out.'

'It's great. It's tough, and it's great. Two things in one,' Martin said. 'We've been together for many, many, many years. It's just hard to see him not at third base. He's been there for 40-plus years.'

Jenk was asked what his pregame message was to his team. Winner of over 1,000 games in his career, this was technically his fifth state championship, the school's sixth.

'I just told them that they've been playing their best all year for me,' he said. 'But I (also) told them 'Don't play the game for me. Play it for yourself and your school and your community. Go win one for yourself and everybody else out there.' It's not about me, it's about them.'

That's not exactly true. It was about all of them.

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com