Sarasota Sailors Baseball

Written by Don Brennan on April 8, 2014 | WWSB ABC 7 News

 

SARASOTA, Fla. – Sarasota Sailors baseball coach Clyde Metcalf is already in the Florida High School Hall of Fame, but he is still coaching -- and still winning.

 

Clyde Metcalf has coached for well over 30 years at Sarasota High School, and recently the coach reached the milestone of 800 wins. "I think it is something that I will look back on in a few years that it will mean more. I think the thing I enjoy most about it is that I have done it at one school," says Metcalfe.

 

It was fitting that it was at a national tournament, because he has helped the Sailors keep a national profile in high school baseball. But that is not what defines him. "I mean in a perfect world it would come at Ronald K. Drews field against Venice or Riverview because they are our rivals."

 

Not many players leave his program without a plan to head to college, Division I or otherwise. Many have gotten drafted and gone the professional route; Ian Desmond, Casey Kelly, and Scooter Gennett are in the majors right now, while Joey Terdoslavich has been and will be again.

 

Clyde sets his players up the future, baseball or otherwise. "I told him I played high school baseball here, I played JUCO ball at Manatee, and I played Division I ball and a little bit of pro ball. Out of all the levels I played, the most professional coaching I got was here," says former Sailors pitcher Josh Renfroe.

 

Eddie Howell coaches alongside Metcalf now, but he was the one who coached Clyde in high school, before hiring him a few years later to take over the program. "We kind of wrestled him away from Riverview High School and convinced him that he needed to be over here. The program has been going boom ever since. He has done a tremendous job."

 

Clyde has won 6 state titles with the Sailors, but he will argue that it is the kids, and the coaches that he has around him, that help him to this success. "Not only are we coaching together, but we are friends. He is a mentor. It has been a special 32 years, really, to be a part of this," says assistant coach Mark Aschenbrenner.

 

Jackie Robinson said that a person's importance is based on his impact on other people. In that case, Clyde Metcalf's importance has been immeasurable. “Wins come, but being around these young men, and the young men for the past 32 years, that is by far the best part of the job," says Metcalf.

 

 

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