High school baseball: Aaron DeBord hired as Cloverleaf coach

Former Stow baseball coach Aaron DeBord said it's a fantastic time to be a Cloverleaf Colt. After speaking with other coaches he knows, DeBord was convinced Cloverleaf was where he wanted to be. He was approved as the next baseball coach by the school board Wednesday night. "I'm really excited to be a part of the Cloverleaf community," DeBord said Thursday. "It seems like they are really taking an active interest in their student-athletes and their development. I think that's something our current and future students should be excited about." DeBord, 38, replaces Erik Pinkerman, who went 40-37 in three seasons with the Colts, including 10-14 last spring. It was Pinkerman and former Cloverleaf and current Medina coach Mark Kelly that gave DeBord the most rave reviews when it came to Cloverleaf. "I talked to the last two guys that coached there and both of the guys had such excellent things to say about the administration, the athletic director (Craig Walkup) and everyone involved in the school and the community," DeBord said. "They made it sound like a very welcoming opening. What really caught my eye was the investment the school district has right now in athletics and facilities." DeBord, who is a court manager and bailiff at the Portage County Probate Court, went 127-130 in 12 seasons with Stow before resigning at the end of this season following a Division II district title. He also led the Bulldogs to the D-I regional finals in 2016 and a Suburban League National Conference crown in 2018. He expects the Colts to play with a mindset of always trying to find an edge with each play they make. That's a principle that he wants to see start with the youth program, where he expects his high school players to take an active role in mentoring. "I really just want our kids to be fundamentally sound and play with an aggressive mindset," DeBord said. "We don't want to be reckless in any sense, but I want us to have confidence in what we're doing and make plays. We're trying to steal 90 feet any time we can, whether that's offensively taking an extra base or defensively making a diving play to take a hit away." It's the way DeBord was taught to play the game from Woodridge High coach Dennis Dever, whom DeBord started coaching for straight out of high school. He then spent two seasons as Firestone's head coach before going to Stow. "Coach Dever has been a mentor to me throughout my time in high school, time as an adult and now he's someone I feel lucky to call a close friend," DeBord said. "Once I started coaching, there were two guys that were opponents of mine that took me under their wing and had an impact on my life, Chris Kaczmar, the former coach at Walsh Jesuit, and Don Jones, the former coach at Twinsburg." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.