Former Apollo mentor Mantooth enjoying retirement

Jun. 21—Bob Mantooth has been retired four years as the baseball coach at Apollo High School.

That hasn't been very much time at all for a man who coached 42 years total at Apollo and Webster County (seven seasons). Mantooth put up 977 wins in those years and won 66% of the games he coached. He is known as the architect of a program that claimed numerous 3rd Region championships.

He and wife Sheree were celebrating a wedding anniversary on Tuesday as they've been together a shade over four decades. They spent a lot of spring and summer nights at baseball fields around this part of Kentucky.

They have attended a lot of Apollo sporting events together through the years.

"Back when I was here, it was sort of what everybody did, we were always there," Mantooth said. "That's what our life was, Sheree and I liked that."

Now, Mantooth's life has been about enjoying retirement, and he knew in 2018 that the time was right.

"I felt like when it was time to retire I knew it was time, I was at peace with that," Mantooth said. "There's certain things I miss but it's not like I wish I was still doing it. It was time to retire."

Now, a lot of baseball watching by Mantooth has been at Southern Little League, where his grandson, Myers, plays. Granddaughter Tatum is involved in dance and gymnastics. Tatum is 10, Myers is 7, and their dad, Ryne Mantooth is married to Lynsie.

"That's what I really do with my time," Mantooth said. Tatum and Myers. "We're following whatever our grandkids are doing. They call me Pops. They call her Ree."

Mantooth has also enjoyed watching his son, Ryne, as an assistant coach at Kentucky Wesleyan College with Todd Lillpop, both of whom played for Bob at Apollo.

"That's been a joy for us. Todd is from here too, we were able to coach him too," Bob Mantooth said. "To watch them play, and watch them interact with those young men, it's a joy to see them pouring themselves into those kids, the connections they make. I'm really proud of Ryne, he works hard, he is serious about what he does."

Teaching the game was always one of Mantooth's favorite parts of coaching.

"I really enjoyed teaching the game," Mantooth said. "It's hard to break one part out that was a favorite part of it. The relationships that developed through all that stuff were pretty special, I felt blessed to be able to do that for so many years. The Apollo people were all so great, all so supportive."

Watching his grandson at Southern has shown Mantooth another aspect of the Apollo baseball legacy continuing.

"At Southern there's a lot of former Apollo players coaching their kids over there, it's really cool to watch," Mantooth said.

Mantooth spent a lot of time during his coaching days riding the mowing tractor at Eagle Park.

"There's a lot of time to think and go over stuff out there," Mantooth said of mowing and taking care of the Apollo field. "The kids took a lot of pride in the field, we wanted them to, they worked on it."

A former player, Mason Head, took over for Mantooth when he retired. And Mantooth was very happy about Head being in charge of Apollo baseball after him.

"I think the world of that young man," Mantooth said of Head.

All of the wins were impressive for Apollo and Mantooth, who stands at No. 5 on the KHSAA baseball career coaching wins list.

"It's one game at a time," Mantooth said. "You're playing to win that game, playing to get better, practicing to get better, everybody looks toward the end of the season. I'm proud of what the kids accomplished. If we hadn't won as many games I still would be proud of the kids and what they accomplished. I'm proud of what everybody involved did to build this program.

"It's different through sport, you put so much of yourself as a player, as a coach, into it, there's that extra bond there, it could carry on for a lifetime."