Coached by Homer Musgrave and Gene Hall

Conference Champions

Season record of 12-4-1

The 1954 SHS baseball team produced some of the best baseball in Sterling High School history. Under the watchful eye of Coach Homer Musgrove and assistant coach Gene Hall, the Warriors rolled to a conference championship. They compiled a season record of 12-4-1. To earn the conference championship it came right down to the wire for SHS, as they beat the challenging DeKalb Barbs for the title. The success of the team rested on a strong pitching rotation, solid batting and good team chemistry. The team was mostly characterized for their dedication and love of the game. They worked extremely well together as a team and had a great deal of fun. In particular, Richard Nice '55 recalled, "the joking and comrade and the feeling of belonging to a group."

Another reason for the success of the field was Coach Homer Musgrove. Homer was a student of the game and former semi-professional player. He was also a great teacher of baseball, always stressing the fundamentals and demanding his players' best effort. James Johnson '55 remembered Homer "as a man of the highest integrity, as a man with great love of the game and as a coach who insisted that the game should be played properly." Homer was also a coach who brought out the fun of baseball for his players. He liked to get in and play with the team during practices. As Don Sisson '54 recalls, "I can still see him standing at home plate saying, 'Throw me that knuckle curve.'" Thus a large part of the success experienced by the 1954 and the following '55 team can be credited to the coaching of Homer Musgrove.

After high school a number of the players from the teams continued playing baseball in college, amateur leagues, and on tour teams. In looking at what made the 1954 and 1955 baseball teams so memorable, it was not only the success on the field, but also friendships that were made, the enjoyment that was had and the lessons that were learned.

The members of the the 1954 team include; Jim Barlow '55, Johnson '55, Carl Huffman '56, Bob Lund '55, Nice '55, Sisson '54, Bill Surratt '55, Ronnie Bignall '55, Bruce Benson '55, Dick Eatinger '55, John Loos '54, and Ronnie Mintun '55.