He Did it!!! He Did it!!!! GO BIG BLUE!

A DUERRISMS COMMENTARY: SWISEGOOD AS IT GETS
When I first started covering high school baseball in the Tri States fourteen years ago, Southeastern Coach Dave Swisegood was one year shy of the mandatory retirement age.
In the time that has passed since, we've watched Lonnie Lemon morph from QND Baseball coach into the Superintendent of Quincy Schools. I've seen Robin Lewis eclipse his legendary father Ed in making Beardstown Baseball a state powerhouse. We've watched highly successful and respected Swise contemporaries like Lon Fulte and Rick Parker come and go. And we've seen kids who were tween back in 1995 like Travis Cooley, Scott Gaines, and Darren Perdun, become the next generation of promising young baseball coaches. Put simply, change has come. Significant change.
Yet here is Swise, still standing on third base, still imploring his kids to "Spin the Wheel"
For fifty two years of his life, Dave Swisegood has put on "the monkey suit" as he calls it (even wearing the batting gloves up until a few years ago) and worked tirelessly to promote the betterment of young people through the sport of baseball. And note my very deliberate use of the phrase "worked tirelessly" because.....
Now 77 years old, Dave Swisegood has more energy and enthusiasm for what he does than any human being I know, in any profession I can think of. Feel free to consider the source on that one. I am exactly half Dave's age and have never been accused of lacking for job enthusiasm. Put a baseball cap on Swise and he puts me and my contemporaries to shame.
As trite and cliché as it might sound, Baseball is Dave Swisegood's fountain of youth. Or more accurately, teaching baseball.
Spend any considerable time around the man and you get the sense that he will never willingly retire from coaching; that he never has given it a single thought despite his "advancing age." There are many in the CSE Baseball Community who believe the day Swise walks away from the game; walks away from the teaching of the sport that he so loves, that his health will start to deteriorate. The "love of the game" so deeply rooted into his spirit that he simply can't live without it. Spend any time talking to the man about baseball and kids and that notion is hard to dispute. It's also nearly impossible not to instantly share his love for what he does the minute he starts talking about the game, the kids. And that to me has been the greatest part of this whole circus....
Over the last week, the humble and hardworking Dave Swisegood became the IHSA's resident "Rock Star." With win number 893, the new state high school career record, Swise has gotten the kind of media coverage in all circles far too absent his career. And as result, a whole new group of people are being introduced to this wonderful gentleman-coach and all he stands for. The more voices that join the chorus, the more I hear casual sports fans talking about "that legendary coach at Southeastern." I had two different women today approach me about Swise and use the word "charming" in describing him from Tyler Fulghum's story on Monday. (Who thought we would live to see that dawn of Swise-Groupies, but I digress....)
The important thing here is that we have lived to see something rare and special happen in Tri State sports this week. All of the values that Dave Swisegood has stood for have paid off in success both tangible and intensely personal to the man who crafted this amazing record. And he has graciously allowed so many of us, both close to him and on the periphery share in this wonderful story. It's an unbelievable number of wins, 893. More importantly, that number represents countless lessons taught to his players, that still echo today in their ears when times get tough and real life throws them a curveball. That impact is far more important to Dave Swisegood than any IHSA mark. And it is celebrated, knowingly or subconsciously, every day of those people's lives. Legacies get no better than that....
One might say this Wins Record could be the perfect swan song to a phenomenal career. Those people don't know Dave Swisegood very well.
Me? I am still trying to figure out what number victory Swise will be chasing 15 years from today.
Keep Spinning the Wheel, my friend.
For all of us.