PREP BASEBALL: Doty enjoying regional run after 'whirlwind' school year

Jun. 4—SYRACUSE — Brent Doty already wore many hats at Wawasee High School.

That was evident by the number of titles in his email signature at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year: strength training, health and math teacher, along with assistant athletic director and head baseball coach.

He then added an unexpected role in August: interim athletic director.

Doty is now near the end of one of the crazier years of his professional career. As it winds down, though, Doty gets to primarily focus one title in particular: head baseball coach.

That's because Wawasee is still alive in the Class 3A tournament, competing in the Bellmont regional this Saturday. The Warriors won their first sectional title since 1997 on Memorial Day to be one of the final 16 teams remaining in Class 3A heading into the weekend.

"It does, honestly," said Doty when asked if the sectional title meant more this year because of all the hurdles he's faced. "I think it would've been special any year, obviously. For our school to have not won a sectional since 1997 — I know we've had a ton of close calls. We've been in sectional finals ... I think it's special just in general, just like if it would've happened in 2016 or 2017.

"But it's just been very, very special this year, just with the role everybody has had to take on."

BECOMING INTERIM AD

An already busy schedule became even busier near the middle of the fall sports season for Doty.

About two months into the school year, then-Wawasee Athletic Director Cory Schutz was placed on administrative leave "pending an investigation by the Indiana State Police department based on allegations of inappropriate conduct with a minor," per a Feb. 27 press release from Wawasee Superintendent Stephen Troyer. An online petition had been started in mid-August to have Schutz removed from his role, and he was officially placed on leave on August 27, 2020.

This thrusted Doty into the interim AD role immediately. Initially, the hope was he'd be in the role for only a few weeks.

It ended up lasting the whole school year.

"Those first couple of months were definitely a whirlwind," Doty recalled. "I definitely remember that first week, we ended up hosting a Friday night football game. I find out on a Thursday, and all the work that goes into hosting a Friday night football game — I was thrown into it really quick."

While Doty was able to navigate a busy fall schedule, he said the winter became crazier because of COVID-19 cases rising across the state and country in the months of November and December.

"We started to have to make decisions on close contacts, finding out if we have enough (players) for the night to field a team or if we need to shut people down," Doty said. "So, the winter was completely different."

Six months to the day from when Schutz was placed on leave, Troyer said in that Feb. 27 press release that Schutz would return and be "temporarily assigned to meet the administrative needs" of Wawasee before the "structure of the athletic department" would be reevaluated at the end of the 2020-21 school year.

According to Doty, Schutz submitted his letter of resignation shortly after returning. His resignation was officially approved at the May 11 school board meeting, with Schutz's contract expiring on June 30. The opening for the full-time athletic director job was posted online soon after, and Doty said he applied to become the full-time AD.

"I am, obviously, hopeful that I will get that opportunity," Doty said.

BALANCING ACT

Doty didn't want to give up his baseball coaching duties, but said he thought about it given his busy schedule as athletic director. Given there was no 2020 season due to the pandemic, though, Doty didn't want to lose another season around the program.

"It meant a lot to our seniors last year if we could've played, and I knew it would mean a lot to our seniors this year to play and have consistency at the head coach spot," Doty said. "It's definitely been a challenge, but I never wanted to give it up necessarily."

Even with giving up teaching responsibilities at the start of the spring semester, the days have been long for the seventh-year coach. Doty said he's usually at the school in the morning before classes begin at 8:30 a.m., taking care of AD duties until an hour or two before the school day ends. Then, it's time to prepare for the baseball activities of the day, whether it be a practice or a game.

Doty gave credit to his wife, Ashley, for supporting him along the way, given 12-plus hour days for him have become a regular occurrence this spring.

"(Ashley) is busy with the kids, and she's handling all of their running around and being busy with that," Doty said. "It's been tough, but she's a rock star. She does an awesome job with our kids. I'm lucky to have her, obviously, and she's done a great job."

Along with athletic assistant Anne Richey taking on a greater role, Doty said other coaches and administrators in the building have helped while he coaches the baseball team.

"There's a litany of people — (girls basketball coach Matt) Carpenter definitely at the forefront," Doty said. "He's really stepped up. He's become our spring supervisor, and he's had to take on quite a bit of a role. With me gone at baseball, there's a lot of softball, there's track, there's golf, there's tennis that (Carpenter) is covering. All of those spring sports are getting covered by him primarily just because I'm not as available.

"Anne Richey and Matt Carpenter have done an outstanding job, but that's not to say our administration hasn't been there supporting me every step of the way."

LOOKING TOWARD REGIONAL

Doty and the Warriors baseball team (18-12) now get ready to face Norwell (18-9) in the regional semifinals Saturday at approximately 1 p.m. at Bellmont High School in Decatur. Should Wawasee beat the Knights, they would play for the regional championship at 8 p.m. against either Leo (29-3) or Hamilton Heights (19-9).

The Warriors beat Lakeland, Jimtown and NorthWood en route to the Sectional 21 title. Doty said he's keeping the message the same heading into what could be an historic weekend for the program.

Wawasee has never won a baseball regional championship.

"I think our expectations are exactly the same as they were going into the sectional: let's go out and compete as hard as we can, have fun and enjoy doing it," Doty said. "If we do that, we've got just as good a chance as anybody else with walking away with the regional title."

Austin Hough can be reached at austin.hough@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2360. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinHoughTGN.