Before Max Kirbach took over as the Henry-Senachwine baseball coach, no team at the school had ever earned a state trophy.
That didn’t stop the 2001 Henry-Senachwine graduate from putting it on his list of goals for his inaugural season.
“To be honest, yeah (I thought we could do it),” said Kirbach, who was an assistant for the Mallards in 2021. “I wrote a list of goals down and this was one of them to be in this game and to win it. Obviously, we didn’t win it. We had several goals this season and met them all but this one, so hopefully we’ll come back next year and see what happens.”
“I’m super happy for the team. It’s a great group of players. They have tons and tons of heart. It just means a lot to do it as a coach, but to coach these players in particular, that means a ton to me.”
Lance Kiesewetter, Henry junior
Kirbach said it was a special group of players for his first season that led the Mallards to a runner-up finish in Class 1A after an 8-0 loss to Gibault Catholic in Saturday’s state title game in Peoria.
“It’s great,” Kirbach said. “I’m super happy for the team. It’s a great group of players. They have tons and tons of heart. It just means a lot to do it as a coach, but to coach these players in particular, that means a ton to me.”
Henry junior Lance Kiesewetter said Kirbach’s coaching played a key part in the Mallards’ historic run.
“He’s a great coach. He knows that we have it in us and he helps us bring it out,” Kiesewetter said. “I had him my freshman year and loved him as an assistant coach and when he came back (as head coach) I was ecstatic.
“I think in order to make this run we needed him as head coach or at least on the coaching staff because he knows what we need to be able to get this done.”
Painting the town red: The Henry coaches and players appreciated the support they received from the community throughout the postseason run.
More than 200 state shirts were sold, businesses around town put good luck or congratulatory messages on their signs or painted their windows, fans decorated their cars for the drive to state and the team bus was escorted out of town by a police car on both days of the state tournament with fans cheering them on from both sides of Rt. 29.
The Mallards also caravanned through town in a Henry bus after returning to town and a reception was held to honor the team at the high school.
“A lot of people are very supportive of us, that really helps our team want to strive to do better,” junior Mason Guarnieri said after Friday’s semifinal. “I think the community has put in a lot of time and effort to feel like we’re supported as a team and we definitely are.”
Sending off the seniors: The Mallards have four seniors on the roster. Catcher Colton Williams and pitcher/first baseman Mason Johnson were regular starters, while Grey Thompson and Jacob Sharwarko saw occasional action, including Thompson as a courtesy runner in both state games.
Kirbach gave Thompson and Sharwarko an at-bat as a send-off in the seventh inning of Saturday’s loss.
“It was an 8-0 game, I thought it was important to get those seniors in and get them an at-bat at state at that point,” Kirbach said. “They’ve earned it. They’ve put in the time.”
Freshmen phenoms: A pair of freshmen played crucial roles in Henry’s runner-up finish in Carson Rowe and Jacob Miller.
Rowe starts at shortstop and Miller starts in right field.
Rowe got the seventh inning rally in Friday’s 2-1 win over Newman started with a single and scored the winning run on a two-out walk-off single by Miller. The duo accounted for three of Henry’s five hits in the semifinal.
“The freshmen have been playing since day one, so it’s not like they just came in halfway through the year and we subbed them in for some of the upperclassmen,” Kirbach said. “We knew right off the bat they were ready to play and they wanted it.”
Other state tidbits: Newman, which lost to Henry in Friday’s semifinals, scored four runs in the sixth inning to beat Goreville 6-2 in Saturday’s third-place game. … Gibault Catholic also won the Class 1A boys basketball state title this school year. Hudson Blank and Kameron Hanvy were starters on both state championship teams.
