The two longest tenured baseball coaches in Howard County, Atholton's Kevin Kelly and Gleneg's Tom Thrasher, expect to assume new roles next year.

Kelly wants to spend time watching his son play, and Thrasher is swapping positions with his JV coach.

Thrasher has coached the Glenelg varsity team for each of the past 13 seasons. He will swap positions with Glenelg JV coach Dave Boteler next spring. Boteler was a senior captain on Thrasher's first team as head coach in 1997. Thrasher teaches at Glenwood Middle School; Boteler teaches at Glenelg High School.

"I was perfectly fine with it, no regrets, no hard feelings," Thrasher said.

In his second year as head coach, in 1998, Thrasher led the Gladiators on a memorable state championship run. The team trailed, 7-2, in the region title game, 9-0 in the first inning of the state semifinal game, and 5-1 in the bottom of the seventh of the state championship game, but rallied to win in extra innings.

"To do what these kids did, to keep coming back the way they have, says something about them. They never stop believing they can win," Thrasher said at the time.

A year later, Glenelg repeated — the only time a Howard County baseball team has ever repeated as state champs — in much less dramatic fashion. The Gladiators won by slaughter rule, 12-2, after six innings. Thrasher's son, Matt, hit an RBI single in that sixth inning and capped his senior season with a first team all-county selection.

"I told Matt (and teammate) Mike (Rice) to get a hit in their last at bat and that they'd remember it forever," Thrasher said after the game.

Thrasher never coached a losing team, compiling an overall record of 191-86 (.690). In addition to the two state titles, Thrasher's Gladiators won county and region titles in '98 and '99, were co-county champs in 2003, and appeared in four other region title games including this spring.

For a year by year breakdown of his career, click the link on the upper right under 'related articles'.

Kelly has coached Atholton for 19 seasons, going 15-5 this spring and guiding the Raiders to an appearance in the Class 3A East semifinals. Before taking over the varsity in 1991 from Don Van Deusen, who became the school's athletic director, Kelly had coached the Atholton JV team for 12 years.

Under Kelly, Atholton won at least a share of three county titles, five region championships, and a state title in 2002. Kelly is 243-166 overall (.594).

Kelly is considering leaving his coaching position at Atholton after more than 30 years so he can watch his son, Sean, play sports. Sean will be a freshman at Mt. Hebron this fall.

"You get to the point where you say, 'Do I want to see my kid play or don't I?' " Kelly said.

He has not yet ruled out remaining at Atholton as varsity baseball coach next spring.

"We're going to be competitive," said Kelly, citing a class of sophomores and juniors that combined to win 13 games and record 75 percent of the team's hits. "It's going to be very difficult to give it up, but I want to watch (Sean) play."

Kelly played baseball for Howard in the mid-1970s and has spent nearly every spring of his life on a baseball diamond, so it's unlikely he will leave baseball altogether.

"I like it still, I feel like I can still offer some things," he said.

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