With Rick Kneisel out for medical reasons, Dusty James will be the Wilmington High School varsity baseball coach this spring.
“Our intention is to bring him (Kneisel) back next (2018) season,” Wilmington High School athletic director Troy Diels said.
James, a WHS graduate, has been an assistant baseball coach for the Hurricane the past few seasons and is currently an assistant coach for the varsity girls basketball program.
“It’s been tough,” said Kneisel. “The door’s open for me to come back, if I want to. Whether this is temporary or the final swan song for my coaching (career), I don’t know. It’s my body telling me (to stop).”
Kneisel, 66, said he has a hip replacement surgery scheduled for Feb. 21.
“I have a great attachment to the players coming back, especially the seniors. I feel like I’m letting them down but my body is telling me I just don’t feel like I can do it.”
A 1968 graduate of Wilmington High School, Kneisel said this past summer he attempted to rehab issues with his hip, knee and shoulder. When athletic trainers told him the rehab was not helping, they considered the issues to be more serious.
“The knee thing happened 40 years ago, so I’ve learned to adjust to that but the other two (hip and shoulder) have gone down hill fast,” he said. “There’s been a lot of wear and tear on the old body.”
Kneisel played baseball at Wilmington and then went on to play at Ohio University. He was a teammate at OU with future Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt. Kneisel then was a teacher and baseball coach in Georgia for more than 20 years. He was an assistant coach of a state — and mythical national — championship baseball team at Lassiter High School in 1999. Kneisel also coached at Peachtree and Dunwoody high schools in Georgia.
Kneisel came to Wilmington to take care of his mother Barbara, who passed away in 2012. Kneisel took over the WHS baseball program in 2014. He went 34-35 in three season for WHS and won more than 250 games as a varsity baseball head coach.
“I feel a sense of responsibility to our players, our coaches, our parents, and to the program and feel terrible having to make this decision,” Kneisel posted on the Wilmington High School baseball Facebook page. “Your dedication to Wilmington High School Baseball has made this program one to be proud of and the results have shown. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of it. The future is bright and not just because there are some talented players, but because everyone of them is dedicated to be the best student, the best teammate, and the best person that they can be. That is a great legacy.”
