Submitted The Mathews 2016 coach-pitch team, which won the Trumbull County championship under head coach Jeff Kish.

It’s been a long journey, but Mathews senior Colton Kish is back where he wants to be. At home, playing baseball with his friends.

A decade ago, Kish and the now-Mustang seniors won the coach-pitch county championship, coached by his father, Jeff. Unfortunately, that next season, Kish’s father passed away. Not long after, the family moved to Georgia, but found their way back in Vienna at the beginning of the school year.

Despite being away from baseball for five years at that point, one of the first things Kish did after enrolling at Mathews was to join the team.

“It was almost instant,” Kish said. “Right when we got back, we went back to Mathews to enroll, and we stopped by (Mathews coach Jared Terlecky’s) room, and first thing he did was he gave me a Mathews baseball t-shirt, and right then and there I was like, ‘Yep, I’m playing this year,’ and it started from there. I just look forward to it every day. When practice just started, it was almost instant from right when I moved back.

“It’s great being back with the old team that I played with when I was like 8 years old. We’re all seniors now. The chemistry is still there, all great friends, and it just felt right to be able to play again. It just all clicked right when I got back, and I couldn’t ask for a better experience than playing Mathews baseball.”

For Terlecky, this is a full-circle moment and fulfilling a promise to an old friend. Terlecky and Kish had played together on Mathews’ district championship squad in 1996.

Terlecky had run into Kish’s father at a birthday party when Kish was just a baby. Upon seeing Terlecky, the elder Kish handed his son to his former teammate, saying, ‘Here’s one of your future ballplayers in about 18 years’.

Sure enough, 18 years later, Kish is out on Dan Kennedy Field in a Mustangs jersey.

In his first year back with the team, and first time in five years playing baseball, Kish is hitting a .308 and has 12 RBIs. Defensively, Kish is lined up at first base, the same position he played as a kid.

“There was a little bit of an adjustment period, like a few months at least,” Kish said. “Getting back into the routine and getting used to fielding groundballs, hitting off the machine and all that. But after maybe a couple weeks, I felt right at home again, playing the sport that I love. I’m glad that I came back.

“I’m beyond grateful that I’ve had this opportunity with everyone here. I just love every bit of it. I wish that my dad was here to see it, because I know that he’d be really proud of me. It helps me through it, knowing that he would be so happy to see me playing on a Mathews baseball team again.”

Having someone he’s known his whole life as his coach certainly doesn’t hurt.

“Coach has known me even before I was born. He knew my dad and my mom. … I was always looking forward to (getting to high school) because I wanted to be coached by a different guy who has a different coaching technique, and it’s just amazing that I’m able to get back here and play with the whole team. It’s just a full-circle moment. It’s been rough getting to this part, but now that I’m here, it’s smooth sailing, and I love every bit of it.”

Terlecky sees a bunch of similarities from the 1996 regional finalist team in the group he’s coaching now.

“There’s a lot of parallels to this year. We had five seniors on that team, good pitching, good hitting,” Terlecky said. “The seniors were great leaders like this, and we kind of started off (middle of the road), and then we just started playing good ball and just kind of built from there.”

While Kish’s return to baseball has been short-lived so far, he doesn’t plan for this to be the end of the road. Kish plans on attending Miami University to study pediatric medicine, but hopes to stay active playing baseball..

The Mustangs hope to punch their ticket to the district title game tonight when they face off with Andrews Osborne Academy. The winner will advance to the district championship and take on the Maplewood-Western Reserve winner.

No matter how the rest of the season shakes out, however, Terlecky emphasized what a special season this has been.

“I can only imagine how proud his dad would be if he got to see him play right now,” Terlecky said. “I guess it brings me a form of joy and pride too, because I think about his dad, and I think about (Colton) playing good ball like that, and I know somewhere he’s got to be grinning ear-to-ear, probably can’t hold it back. He’s got to be so happy. I think that’s really, really something pretty nice that we’ve got to experience this year, no matter what else happens.”