Gray's Creek baseball coaching pioneer Jeff Nance honored with field dedication

Gray's Creek baseball clobbered Pine Forest 19-2 on Tuesday night in nonconference competition, improving its record to 7-2, 5-0 U8, and pushing its win streak to seven games.

But the spotlight of the evening wasn't the score on the scoreboard − it was the name. Coach Jeff Nance's name.

Prior to the Bear's routing the Trojans, Gray's Creek High School dedicated the baseball field to Nance for all of his service and his commitment to not only the baseball club, but the school since it's inception in 2003.

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"I've been here since the doors opened, and we started out thin so it's exciting to see where we are now," Nance said.

The first and only Gray's Creek baseball coach holds an overall 468-232 record, and has been classified as a "great teacher, leader, and all-around good guy," by Gray's Creek sports department via X. "It's always a good feeling to be spoken well of − I knew that the job as a teacher or coach didn't come with much income, but in this position you don't really care about the income − just the outcome," Nance said.

Nance's Bears are on a roll this season. While on their seven-game win streak, the Bears haven't allowed more than four runs in a game this season, with three shutouts during the stretch.

"Our kids have completely bought in to the selflessness that it takes to play together," said Nance. "It's OK to care about how you individually performed, but it's even more important to care about how you performed for your team," he continued.

"In baseball you can be really good some days and lose, and you can be really bad and win − we've just had things go our way and we take advantage of the opportunities," said Nance.