Connors State College baseball coach Perry Keith is the embodiment of the Cowboy Way. As you enter the baseball stadium at Connors, the archway welcomes you to Perry Keith Park. He is a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association Baseball Hall of Fame. And in late April he became the winningest active baseball coach in NJCAA history.
He wound up his 38th year heading the Cowboys baseball program with a total of 1807 wins which he humbly credits to those around him.
“I think all of these honors I’ve received are just a testament to our program and the players and coaches we’ve had over the years,” said Keith. “Obviously to be successful you’ve got to surround yourself with good people and I’ve been blessed to be able to do that. Every year when graduation rolls around. I ask myself ‘how are you going to replace him? He’s not only a good player but he’s a better person’. But somehow we always manage to find these kinds of people.”
A big part of that is the approach that Perry Keith takes to recruiting these young men.
“A lot of schools will tell a player whatever they have to in order to get them on campus. But I believe in building relationships when I recruit. I tell a player when I’m recruiting that this isn’t a two-year deal. It’s a lifetime deal for me. As a result, I still get calls today-some good and some bad-from guys that played for me in the 80s.”
In the era of the “coaching carousel” and the transfer portal, Keith believes that protecting your program’s culture is vitally important.
“As long as it takes to establish a positive team culture, it can be gone in the blink of an eye. I think the University of Texas football program is a good example. After Mack Brown left, they’ve never been able to get that swagger back.”
So, are the pre-dawn departures to recruit or the countless hours spent being a coach and groundskeeper at Perry Keith Park getting old?
“I have good health and enjoy being at the ballpark, but I have high expectations and put a lot of pressure on myself. I think that when you reach the point where losing doesn’t hurt a bit, it’s time to get away. But right now, those losses still hurt me a lot.”
