Kissack named Independent's Boys Coach of the Year

When did the Grand Island Senior High baseball squad become a championship team?

The obvious answer is when the eighth-seeded Islanders clinched their first state title against Millard West last month.

But there's several other key stops that Grand Island made along the way.

It could have been when the Islanders rallied in the seventh inning to beat Millard North in the district final and qualify for the state tournament.

It could have been in the first round of the state tournament, when G.I. shook off miserable, wet conditions and stunned top-seeded Omaha Creighton Prep.

Maybe when it was the team was 6-10, kept its confidence and went on a second-half of the season to remember.

It may even have been in the state tournament last year, when a miserable day at the plate in a 1-0 winners' bracket semifinal loss to Elkhorn led to changes that paid off this year.

Throughout all of these events, coach Rick Kissack guided the Islanders and helped them become the Nebraska high school sports surprise story of the spring.

For that, Kissack has been named The Independent's Boys Coach of the Year.

Kissack is 118-63 in six years as the only head coach in the history of the still young Islanders program. He's led the team to four state tournament appearances.

But this year's trip to Lincoln became one to remember. The emotions are still high one month later.

"I've had time to reflect and understand how important a state championship is for people," Kissack said. "I understand how important high school sports are to the community. I can't count how many times someone has come up and congratulated me."

It didn't seem to be the year for Grand Island to contend for a state title.

Twice before the Islanders were the top seed and went a combined 1-4.

This year they were the last seed after entering the postseason 14-13.

However, the loss to Elkhorn last year turnout out to pay off. In that game, the Islanders struck out 12 times against current University of Nebraska pitcher Matt Freeman, including eight times while looking.

That led to Kissack wanting the team to change its approach at the plate, going to more of a "two strike" approach from the start of each at-bat.

That led to the best team offensive numbers for the program this season.

"Certainly the group took a great hitting approach," Kissack said. "Even in the (Creighton) Prep game, when they were throwing the ball right by us, we stayed patient and tried to hit the ball the other way. The team went on and stayed comfortable."

It also helped extend the season when Grand Island rallied for two runs in the top of the seventh in the district final.

"In the seventh inning, we had good approaches at the plate," Kissack said. "We had two guys go from 0-2 (counts) to 3-2 and then get hits."

Another turning point came earlier in the season. The injury-plagued Islanders were 6-10, including a doubleheader sweep at the hands of Omaha Creighton Prep where they lost by a combined 38-12.

Kissack felt the team never lost faith in itself.

"I remember a big conversation we had," he said. "We knew we had some kids out, so we said that we had to get better every game. Our program has been fighting for the wild card from the beginning. A wild card is nice to have. We sat down and said that isn't an option this year.

"Our goal was to get better, and we did that."

Grand Island Senior High activities director Joe Kutlas felt Kissack did a nice job keeping the team focused while it was  well under .500

"Early in the year, when the baseball team was struggling, Rick did a great job of preaching patience and keeping a steady hand," he said. "We lost heavy to graduation and had people hurt early on. Rick understood that there would be better days ahead, and he kept the team focused on that.

"He also had the foresight and courage to experiment with the lineup during the regular season in preparation for a stretch run."

Pitcher Eric Schwieger said: "When everybody got back from injuries, we played well as a team and hit the ball well."

The Islanders built momentum by winning eight of 11 games to close out the regular season, then put together a postseason run for the ages.

"I don't know how we did it," pitcher/shortstop Kash Kalkowski said. "We came together at districts and decided to win one game at a time."

Grand Island picked up four of its six postseason wins by one run. At the state tournament, the Islanders defeated Omaha Creighton Prep, Omaha Westside, Millard North and Millard West -- programs that have combined for 14 state championships and 25 runner-up finishes -- to become the first non-Omaha area team to win a state baseball title in 28 years.

"The year before at state, we got the win (the first in the program's history) and lost a hard fought game to Elkhorn with 12 strikeouts," Kissack said. "We had an empty feeling.

"We tried to focus this year going into state that there's no moral victories. We knew he had a tough challenge against Prep, but we kept a good mindset, and that's a credit to the players."

Kissack credits senior leadership from players like Schwieger, Kalkowski, Slade Bolles, Kirby Wells and Casey Griffin for keeping the team together.

They helped make things easier as Kissack shuffling things around trying to find the winning combination throughout the season.

"We moved people around defensively trying to get people in the right positions," Kissack said. "We changed Casey Griffin from the outfield to third, Kirby Wells went full-time to first base, and when Pete (Kropp) came back we had a more solid defense.

"When Slade was out (from catching with an elbow injury), we struggled defensively. He came back and shut teams down. He came back and we started playing well left and right. And our junior outfield (Nate Zook, Luke Farrar and Brandon Tjaden) had a great state."

Kutlas said: "Obviously, you don't win state championships without great players and great performances, and no doubt we had those. We had gutty performances and timely hitting and great defensive from several of our players, and our studs definitely stepped up and played at a very high level. And so the credit, as it should, goes to the Islander players for coming through in the clutch repeatedly and in a big way.

"And Rick has rightly credited the kids for our amazing state championship run. But I'm glad to see coach Kissack getting some credit for his role in getting us through a tough early season, putting us in position down the stretch, and making some savvy moves in the district and state tournaments. It was a great team effort, with plenty of glory to go around, as it should be.”