July 19, 2010Harrison ( West Lafayette ) High School
Reprinted courtesy of:
Lafayette Journal and Courier
Until his daughter Brooke took up softball, Dick Mitchell had not given much thought to coaching the sport.
Now, almost three decades later, softball plays a significant role in his life.
"if there’s a game on TV, I watch it," Mitchell said. "if there’s an interesting book to read on it, I read it. I follow a lot of college coaches and listen to what they say and I’ve been to their seminars. It’s a never-ending process."
Mitchell recently chose to take his softball involvement to another level. Harrison’s athletic department is recommending Mitchell to the Tippecanoe School Corp. board of trustees as the softball program’s next head coach.
He would succeed Abby Willis, who stepped down after coaching the Raiders to their second straight sectional title this past spring.
"to me, the Harrison High School softball job is one of the dream jobs in the state," Mitchell said. "They have great facilities, have a great school, a great administration.
"We’ve had several kids from Harrison play on our travel team throughout the years. They’re not only great softball players but great people, and the parents are great people. put all that together and you really think they must be doing something right out there."
Mitchell began coaching his daughter, who played at Lafayette Jeff and at Tennessee Tech, in youth leagues. when Brooke Mitchell began coaching travel softball in college, she convinced her father to return to coaching.
Dick Mitchell also spent two seasons as an assistant to his daughter when Brooke was the head coach at Benton Central. They’ve coached the Indiana Twisters together for the past eight years, and their roster included recent Harrison players such as Kate Shipley, Morgan Stephens, Brooke Jordan, Megan Mitchell and Lisa Cappa.
"We see him at our ball diamond a few times each spring, when he comes out and just watches kids play," Harrison athletic director Jerry Galema said. "He’s a fan of softball. The players we’ve had go through his travel team over the summer, they highly recommended him — parents and players."
Mitchell, 58, is retired from Alcoa. Galema said the district had no teaching openings to offer, and no teachers on staff were interested in the position.
"I’m not so sure that he wouldn’t have been our choice either way," said Galema, who said Mitchell had been interested in the position when Willis was hired in 2004.
Mitchell said Brooke and another Twisters coach, Ron Bramer, would join him at Harrison.
The Raiders finished 19-10 last season. in 2009, a 25-8 season ended in the Class 4A state championship game.
"We’re hoping to continue it and maybe take that one last step and get them that championship victory," Mitchell said.
<a href="http://www.ihigh.com/school8626/article_30546.htmltag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.ihigh.com/school8626/article_30546.htmlMon, 19 Jul 2010 16:28:50 GMT 00:00″>Harrison to name new softball coach
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