It is, perhaps, appropriate that the visiting team for Wednesday’s junior varsity/varsity baseball games at Progressive Field be the only other school in the state who uses “Bluejays” as their nickname.
Bondurant-Farrar will be the guest of the original Bluejays, of Perry, for Raccoon River Conference hardball. The game will be the 1,113th game Perry will play under the direction of Mike Long, who first became the Bluejay skipper in 1978.
Now in his 40th season, Long is 10th on all-time career victory list among active coaches with a mark of 709-402 entering Monday’s game at Carlisle. He directed Perry to second place in the 1987, 1991 and 1998 state tournaments, and took the 1999, 2002 and 2004 teams to the state tourney as well.
Kevin Ruggle mentioned that his nephew, Joe, had recently taken his own son, Gus, to a Perry game and had introduced him to his old ball coach. That got Ruggle thinking of all the players Long had impacted over his tenure and of the unique bond formed between father and son by baseball.
A facebook page — Bluejay Baseball Alumni Night — was started, and soon over 130 former players had been contacted. Many — Kurt Whiton and Rob Nevitt immediately came to his mind — played for Long and then had their own sons play for their former skipper.
It was decided that, rather than having some official ceremony or function, alumni from as many classes as possible would gather June 28, sit together, and root on the Bluejays as a show of support for their old school and as a way to salute their former coach.
Now comprised of doctors, lawyers, engineers, bankers, teachers, laborers, law enforcement members and, yes coaches — among a myriad of professions — many former players representing four decades of graduating classes under Long will be gathering from Kansas, Minnesota and other states to attend Wednesday’s game.
A unique situation will thus be created, one in which current players as young as 14 and old veterans now in their late 50’s will refer to the same man — Mike Long — as “coach.”
Kevin Ruggle encouraged alumni to spread the word and come out to the game. He said Long had “Pushed us to be better at a time in our lives when maybe we needed a little pushing, and we are all better for it.”