BILLINGS — How does a 70-year-old grandpa blast a ball off a tee quicker than a teenager in his prime? The short answer is technique.

Rich Schenck (pronounced “Skenk”) not only has it, but he also teaches it to some of Major League Baseball’s biggest stars.

“Most people push their bat forward. I believe it needs to be like a Nike swoosh and go backward before it goes forward,” Schenck explained recently to MTN Sports.

WATCH THE VIDEO:

Swinging for success: Aaron Judge’s hitting coach shares secrets with local youth

Master that technique, and you might make the big leagues, like New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, whom Schenck coaches. Judge is hitting nearly .400 this season — far ahead of any other MLB player.

Schenck was recently at Pirtz Field in Billings, letting young local hopefuls in on his secret.

“My swing has been under,” said 15-year-old Tanner Stiegemeier, demonstrating in thin air. “I’m hoping I can get it more up.”

Teammates Chase Langford and Gehrig Hust also had their own beat on how to swing a better bat.

“I got to get my hands quick,” said Hust, 13.

“Probably quick hands and bat speed … bat velocity,” added Langford.

Schenck, who also shared advice with coaches, made the quick day trip to Billings while visiting his daughter’s family in Belgrade. It was sort of a favor to his son-in-law, J.D. Stephenson, who is friends with Billings coach Bobby Beers. They work together with the Montana Institute of Sport.

“In three short years, we’ve been able to get into 200 schools, develop P.E. curriculums, support coaches and create opportunities for youth sports,” said Stephenson, CEO of the organization.

“I think one of the things kids this young don’t understand is the consistency it takes (to succeed at a high level),” Beers added.

Schenck’s background in developing the Nike swoosh technique truly rewinds time.

“This thing called the internet was new, and I started going online to get information to help my boys enjoy the game better,” Schenck recalled.

He never did play pro ball but was a Division II college catcher who aspired to hit like Barry Bonds.

“He was the best hitter in the game at that time, and maybe forever,” Schenck said.

So, Schenck set up a hitting station with video recordings in his basement.

“I would ask, what’s his lead arm doing … my lead arm doing? What’s his head doing … my head doing? What’s his bat doing, my bat … my leg, his leg?” he explained.

Schenck mastered the philosophy he teaches today — “launch quickness,” he calls it — and his big break came when he delivered a breakthrough for a young Aaron Judge, who was struggling in the minor leagues nine years ago.

“The first day I was with Aaron, I put a ball on a tee for him and a ball on a tee for me. I was 62 years old and looked like this … and he was 24 and just a physically cut specimen. And he could not hit the ball before me,” Schenck said.

Judge figured it out, endorsed Schenck on Twitter, and the lives of both men changed forever. Judge went on to win American League Rookie of the Year the following season in 2017, the first Yankee to do so since Derek Jeter.

Schenck, meanwhile, blossomed to help other Major League stars and continues to tutor teens — and he’s still quicker.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s high school track-and-field state championships starting Friday are set to be the testing ground for a new participation and medaling policy for competitions that include transgender athletes.

The California Interscholastic Federation will let an additional student compete and potentially offer an extra medal in three events in which a trans athlete is competing. The athlete, high school junior AB Hernandez, is the second seed in the triple jump and will also participate in the long jump and high jump.

It may be the first effort by a high school sports governing body to expand participation when trans athletes are participating, and it reflects efforts to find a middle ground in the debate over trans girls’ participation in youth sports.

“The CIF values all of our student-athletes and we will continue to uphold our mission of providing students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete while complying with California law,” the group said in a statement after announcing its rule change.

State law allows trans students to compete on sex-segregated sports teams consistent with their gender identity.

President Donald Trump threatened this week to pull federal funding from California unless it bars trans female athletes from competing on girls teams. The U.S. Department of Justice also said it would investigate the state federation and the district that includes Hernandez’s high school to determine whether they violated federal sex discrimination law by allowing trans girls to compete in girls sports.

What the new participation and medaling policy will look like

The meet, which is taking place at a high school near Fresno, will open up the girls triple jump, long jump and high jump to one additional athlete each who would have qualified had Hernandez not participated. Hernandez will compete in the preliminaries Friday for a chance to advance to the finals Saturday.

Under the pilot policy, if a transgender athlete medals, their ranking would not displace a “biological female” student from medaling, the federation said.

The federation said the rule would open the field to more “biological female” athletes. One expert said the change may itself be discriminatory because it creates an extra spot for “biological female” athletes but not for other trans athletes.

The federation did not specify how they define “biological female” or how they would verify whether a competitor meets that definition.

Medical experts say gender is a spectrum, not a binary structure consisting of only males and females.

The two-day meet is expected to draw attention from a coalition of protesting parents and students. Critics have objected Hernandez’s participation and heckled her in qualifying events earlier this month. Leaders from the conservative California Family Council joined Republican state lawmakers Thursday for a press conference blasting the policy change and saying Hernandez shouldn’t be allowed to compete.

“If they have to create special exceptions and backdoor rule changes to placate frustrated athletes, that’s not equality, that’s a confession,” Sophia Lorey, the council’s outreach director, said in a statement. “Girls’ sports should be for girls, full stop.”

CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti urged participants and bystanders to behave respectfully toward all student-athletes in a message shared in the championship program.

Nationwide debate over trans athletes’ participation

A recent AP-NORC poll found that about 7 in 10 U.S. adults think transgender female athletes should not be allowed to participate in girls and women’s sports at the high school, college or professional level. That view was shared by about 9 in 10 Republicans and roughly half of Democrats. Trump won Fresno County, where the meet will be held, in 2024.

Hernandez told the publication Capital & Main earlier this month that she couldn’t worry about critics.

“I’m still a child, you’re an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person,” she said.

She noted that she has lost some of her events, saying that disproved arguments that she can’t be beat.

Hernandez is expected to perform well, particularly in the triple jump, in which she has a personal best of over 41 feet (12.5 meters). That is more than 3 feet (1 meter) short of a national record set in 2019. She’s the fifth seed in the long jump but ranked much lower in the high jump.

California’s state championship stands out from that of other states because of the number of competitors athletes are up against to qualify.

More than 57,000 high schoolers participated in outdoor track and field in California during the 2023-2024 school year, according to a survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations. California had the second-largest number of high school outdoor track-and-field athletes, only behind Texas.

Of the 12 high school athletes who have set national records in the girls triple jump between 1984 and 2019, eight have been from California, according to the national sports governing body.

Davis Whitfield, the national federation’s chief operating officer, called a state championship “the pinnacle” for high school student-athletes.

“It’s certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience in some cases to participate in a state championship event,” he said.

___

Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X: @sophieadanna

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...FIRE WEATHER WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY MORNING THROUGH
SUNDAY EVENING FOR GUSTY WINDS, LOW HUMIDITY AND ISOLATED
LIGHTNING FOR PARTS OF WESTERN NEVADA AND THE EASTERN SIERRA...

The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a Fire Weather
Watch for gusty winds and low humidity and isolated dry lightning,
which is in effect from Saturday morning through Sunday evening.

* Affected Area...Fire Weather Zone 274 Southern Mono County,
Fire Weather Zone 420 Northern Sierra Front including Carson
City, Douglas, Storey, Southern Washoe, Western Lyon, and Far
Southern Lassen Counties, Fire Weather Zone 421 Southern
Sierra Front including Alpine, Northern Mono, Southern Lyon,
and Western Mineral Counties and Fire Weather Zone 429
Lahontan Basin including Churchill and Eastern Mineral
Counties.

* Winds...Southwest wind gusts 30 to 40 mph. Gusts to 50 mph in
wind prone areas.

* Humidity...10-15% during the day with poor overnight recoveries
around 20-35%.

* Thunderstorms...10-15% chance of isolated dry thunderstorms
with gusty, erratic outflow winds primarily in the Sierra.

* Duration...8 to 12 hours.

* Impacts...The combination of gusty winds and low humidity can
cause fire to rapidly grow in size and intensity before first
responders can contain them.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Avoid outdoor activities that can cause a spark near dry
vegetation, such as yard work, target shooting, or campfires.
Follow local fire restrictions. Check weather.gov/reno for
updates and livingwithfire.info for preparedness tips.

&&

Bruce was born in Athol, Massachusetts, to Katherine P. and Percy “Bill” Colon on Aug. 17, 1940, the youngest of three children.

After graduating from Athol High School in 1958, Bruce attended Paul Smith’s College, where he was a vital member of the ski team. He graduated with an associate’s degree in forestry in 1960. He served in the U.S. Army from 1962 to 1964 and then earned his bachelor of science degree from the University of New Hampshire in 1967.

Bruce returned to the Adirondacks in 1967 to teach and coach football, golf and Alpine skiing at Saranac Lake High School. From 1968 to 1977, he held the position of assistant headmaster at Northwood School in Lake Placid, where he led the history department and coached baseball, golf, football and Alpine skiing. By his second year at Northwood, he had led the football team to an undefeated season, and two members of his ski team were selected for the U.S. National Junior Team. He also played a key role in transitioning Northwood School to a coeducational institution and establishing its women’s sports programs. Bruce was an influential volunteer in championing Lake Placid community youth sports as a Little League baseball coach, area golf instructor, and Lake Placid Sports Council member. In 1977, he was appointed Women’s Alpine Director for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.

One of Bruce’s lasting legacies is as a founder of the New York Ski Educational Foundation. Since its inception in 1973, the Whiteface Alpine Training Center, later re-named NYSEF, has become a nationally recognized program that has trained thousands of youth in Alpine, Nordic, freestyle and snowboard programs over the past 50-plus years. In 2018, Bruce was an inaugural inductee into the NYSEF Hall of Fame. Following his tenure at Northwood School, he established and served as the first headmaster of Carrabassett Valley Academy in Maine and later headed Alpine ski programs at Mount Bachelor in Oregon, Mount Alyeska in Alaska, and Aspen, Snowmass and Crested Butte in Colorado. Dozens of Coach Colon’s athletes went on to compete and/or coach at national, international and Olympic levels. In 2003, Bruce was honored with U.S. Ski and Snowboard Chairman’s Special Recognition “Tom Reynolds Award for Lifetime Achievement in Coaching.”

Upon retirement, Bruce returned to Lake Placid, where he pursued his passion for golf, perfected his craft of custom bamboo fly rod building and relished spending time with his children and grandchildren.

Bruce is survived by his four children, Laurie (Johnny) Woods of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Clarke (Elizabeth) Colon of Waterbury, Vermont, Lisa (Shawn) Holes of Boise, Idaho, and Eric Colon of Silt, Colorado; eight grandchildren, Eliza (Kent) True, William Holes, Logan Holes, Mazie Holes, Heath Colon, Davis Colon, Levi Colon and Claire Colon; four great-grandchildren; his friend and former wife, Nancy Colon of Lake Placid; and his girlfriend of 20 years, Carol Nevulis of Lake Placid. He also leaves behind numerous nieces and nephews and countless former students and athletes whose lives he positively impacted.

He was preceded in death by both his parents; brother Frazier P. Colon; and sister Joan E. Duncan.

A celebration of life will take place later this summer. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to NYSEF, PO Box 300, Wilmington, NY 12997 or nysef.org.

The M. B. Clark, Inc., Funeral Home in Lake Placid is overseeing arrangements. Visit www.mbclarkfuneralhome.com to share a memory or leave condolences.

CORALVILLE — The City of Coralville is pausing a project that would have added two new baseball diamonds to the Coralville Youth Sports Park after construction bids came in higher than expected.

Initially, the fields were planned to be available for limited use in the fall of 2026. Now city staff estimate the project will be delayed a year, though that is subject to change depending on when the city awards a construction contract.

The project at the park, 2480 Dempster Dr., would add a 375-foot-long diamond, with the option for 70-, 80- and 90-foot basepaths, and a smaller 250-foot diamond with basepath options of 50, 60 and 70 feet. Both fully fenced-in diamonds are planned to include a dugout, a batting cage/pitching warmup area and bleachers. Grass parking areas and a player drop-off area also would be added.

Estimated construction costs higher than expected

The city said the engineer’s estimate for the project was around $1.58 million. However, the three bids the city received ranged in price from $1.88 million to $2 million.

“We are recommending that we would reject these bids and go back to our consultants and talk about how we can change up either the structure of this bid and/or the timing of this bid so we can get some better pricing …,” Sherri Proud, director of Coralville Parks and Recreation, said at a city council meeting Tuesday.

Proud said the city will consider splitting the project into two in an effort to decrease the costs and increase the number of contractors that are able to complete each part of the project.

The city council approved a request to spend up to $1.8 million for the project in January.

Existing diamond moved to make space

Coralville is moving toward construction of a new recreation center after the council adopted a master plan in late 2024. The project’s cost is estimated to be between $50 and $55.4 million.

City staff have said the existing layout in S.T. Morrison Park, 1513 Seventh St., may not have enough space for both its existing baseball field and a new recreation center, and they are anticipating closing the diamond once construction on the center begins.

The two new diamonds at the Youth Sports Park would serve as a replacement for the closed diamond, should the city move forward with closing the field at S.T. Morrison Park.

The proposed new recreation center, to the east of the existing facility in S.T. Morrison Park, would be 109,700 square-feet and include three gymnasiums, an elevated track, a spa and three pools: a competition pool with spectator seating, a leisure pool and a recreation and community lap pool. Community meeting rooms and strength, cardio and fitness rooms also would be available.

Coralville and the Iowa City Community School District have indicated they would like to continue to partner on the facility to provide pool space for the district’s swimming program. The two came together to pay for construction of the current rec center pool, which was built 37 years ago.

The school board indicated earlier this month that it would support the city’s ask of $14 million to be allocated for the project.

Coralville also is considering going to voters this November or in March 2026 to seek approval of a local-option sales tax or general obligation bond, said Kelly Hayworth, Coralville’s city administrator.

The city is planning to keep the existing rec center open throughout construction of the new building. It would then be demolished once construction is complete.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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