FORTVILLE — In coaching, trust is everything, and Mt. Vernon’s Brad King is a man of his word.
What began as an innocent promise made to motivate his Class 4A Marauders baseball team before the regional tournament last month will become a reality this week.
“That’s the thing, you have to follow through because you never want to be the coach that tells a kid this is what needs to happen and do this and not follow through,” King said. “The tattoo is coming.”
The tattoo, which King swore to get if the Marauders became the first regional championship team in Mt. Vernon baseball history since 1971, has been mocked up.
Now, it’s just a matter of getting inked before the historic 2021 team’s awards ceremony.
“I’ve got the design setup and ready to roll,” King said. “Hopefully, I can get it by next Monday, which is our banquet.”
The tattoo that’s set for King’s right arm will celebrate a season to remember for the 2021 Daily Reporter Baseball Coach of the Year as voted upon by the Hancock County coaches and Daily Reporter sports staff.
The artwork will involve the Marauders’ trademark shield and will be decorated with the program’s successes, namely, a school-record 26 wins, a first-ever outright Hoosier Heritage Conference title, a 4A final four appearance and the word “Trailblazers.”
“Trailblazers. That’s what we talked about. Blaze that trail, be that team that is the standard for every team going forward,” King said. “Now, we set a standard that we have to reach every year.”
The new watermark is quite high, but one that was building ever since the lost 2020 COVID-19 pandemic spring season.
It was a matter of belief and chemistry, which King and his assistant coaches brought to Fortville in their first-active season after several years at New Castle.
“At New Castle, we won 20 games or more five times. We’ve done it once here. That’s always been my goal to win 20 games or more in a season. If you can win 20 games in a high school season, that’s pretty good, but again, you have to have talent and players who will buy into what you want,” King said.
The secret to the Marauders’ first sectional title since 2011, a school-record 26-7 finish and a first regional championship in 50 years is working small.
“It was Hunter (Dobbins) who said, ‘Hey, if we win two out of every three games, we’re going to be pretty good,'” King said. “So that’s what we did. We were either 3-0 or 2-1 in every three-game series this year as we moved forward. There were a couple of times when we could have been 1-2, but we didn’t. Setting small goals to obtain larger goals is what this group was all about.”
Overcoming adversity was also a requirement, particularly a tug-of-war HHC title race with rival Greenfield-Central that could have gone either way, but instead the Marauders used as fuel.
Mt. Vernon won its first outright HHC crown by finishing 12-2, one game ahead of Greenfield-Central (11-3), but it prepared the team for its postseason run.
“We had an opportunity, mentally, to fall apart, but we also knew we had an opportunity,” King said. “That mental toughness that this group had kept building and it’s what drove us through sectional and regional.”
After losing to Greenfield-Central, 8-0, on the road May 11, the Marauders won 11 in a row, including the Pendleton Heights Sectional title over the host Arabians on May 31 and over state-ranked Cathedral in the regional title game.
“I think we had one of the better schedules in the state, and to be able to go through that competition and be 26-7, you have to have a lot of good talent, obviously, but any good team that I’ve had that’s had success also had to have role players that understood their role and don’t get caught up in the negativity,” King said.
The Marauders had several at their disposal, which was evident even in pressure moments as Mt. Vernon rallied back to win both regional games to reach the final four.
“I was thinking about the regional championship game, and in the sixth and seventh inning, we played where we made five substitutions and moved guys around,” King said. “It just shows the versatility this group has.”
Unfortunately, for the Marauders, the season ended at host Jasper in the semistate against the eventual state champions on June 12, but no goal is too high to reach, now, including for King.
“The crazy thing is they wanted me to grow my hair if we won state,” King laughed. “I usually keep it pretty short.”
Never say never.
