LOOKING ON — Fred Heatherington coaches third base during a game this past season. He retired after 36 years as Big Red’s coach following the season. - Andrew Grimm

Time is a funny thing. It feels like it’s flying by sometimes, this summer perhaps more than ever. It feels like just last week we were gathered around baseball diamonds across the Valley, but here we are, the summer is almost over and just like that we are in August. Eight weeks has, in a lot of ways, felt like one, and vice versa.

As much as short amount of times can seem to move at varying speeds, so can years.

Eight years sure can feel like a long time in some cases, too. Then again, sometimes it feels like no time at all.

Eight years is how long I have worked for the Herald-Star/Daily Times, which has involved four different job titles. Thinking back to the summer of 2017, when a younger version of myself began this journey, it almost seems like a different world, a different time, hard to imagine that it was not even a decade ago.

I’ve driven four different personal cars, multiple local teams have won state titles, there have been the ups and downs of life outside of work, we’ve been through a global pandemic and two Presidential elections — yes, it feels like a long time indeed.

However, compared to 36 years, eight seems like nothing, doesn’t it.

Those 36 years are how long Fred Heatherington, who that younger version of myself first met in the spring of 2018, guided the Big Red baseball program. An era that came to an end this past spring.

In an era where coaches come and go more and more often it seems, staffs change around the ones that do stay, administrations change, new school boards are elected … 36 years guiding the same program, building it and maintaining a level of success that goes down among the best to ever do it in the process, is something that impressive does not even begin to describe.

Some 697 wins, 18 district tiles, 14 OVAC titles … the list of accolades that could go here would take up a lot of space. What a run.

It’s an era that, no matter how much I can put in perspective how much has changed in eight years, I’m not fully capable of comprehending or appreciating enough. Though maybe I do understand it better now than I did eight years ago.

While maybe I didn’t grasp it then, even my naive younger self recognized a few things back then when I first walked up to what, even without prior exposure, just felt like a larger-than-life presence after a baseball game at Vaccaro Field.

It was evident to that young sports writer that this is a man that draws people’s respect and admiration — from the opposition and his own team, fans, coaches and players. A respect that had been earned long before I ever thought of picking up a scorebook and a camera.

One of my first impressions, and one that never left and only grew, was this is a man that people look up to, who has made people around him better — evidenced by more than 70 players going on to play collegiate baseball after their time on his Big Red clubs. I can only imagine the number of Big Red baseball players who could have played college baseball, but played other sports at the next level is also immeasurable.

And, perhaps most evident above all then, and through the last eight years, this is a man whose focus is on the team. Making his players a team, making that team play together as one unit, making that unit function as a team and, most importantly, putting the focus on the whole, not the individual, and most definitely not himself.

The number of times opposing coaches, many of whom shared their adoration and respect for coach Heatherington, cited that as a reason why facing his teams was so tough I can’t even put a number on.

I also can’t begin to tell you how many times coach Heatherington asked me to make sure I emphasized TEAM when quoting him in a game story.

As much at times as I wanted to focus on one individual in our countless post-game interview sessions, he always brought the attention back to the team. While maybe I didn’t always understand it — and sometimes had to alter the direction I wanted to go with the story — now not only do I understand it, I have the utmost respect for it. Big Red baseball was a team game.

That team mentality and care for his players did not end when they left Big Red, either, as some of the moments coach Heatherington expressed the most pride to me was telling me about what former players were doing, success they were having in college and beyond. I recall one photo we ran where multiple Big Red alumni were playing in the same college baseball game, and greeted their former coach afterwards and, the coach who seemed to always be even keel, had the biggest, proudest grin.

I can only imagine the number of those moments I did not see is immeasurable.

The very reason this is being written now, and not back during the season when it was announced year No. 36 would be the last — the TEAM still had baseball to play, and the focus was on that. He wanted to leave the focus on them at the time.

As the summer moved on, time has moved fast and the dust has settled. So now, before more of it passes, and next year of high school sports begins, it’s time to look back and appreciate the greatness I was fortunate enough to be around for just a fraction of.

Thanks for the memories, coach. Some of the best moments in these eight years have involved Big Red baseball. As cool as it is to cover high school football in the Valley, and as exciting as basketball can be, I look forward to baseball every spring as much or more than anything else, and that started a short, but long, eight years ago. There’s not much like a warm spring day leaning against a ballpark fence with a scorebook.

I will miss those days ending with a walk out to the Big Red dugout while “The Horse” is playing to talk to coach Heatherington.

Thanks for putting up with me for eight years, thanks for the memories and thanks for sharing your love of baseball with so many of us. Enjoy your well-deserved retirement, coach.

While I can’t quite do justice to the last 36 years in my own words, no matter how hard I may try, what better way to reflect of it than finishing with the words of the man who saw it himself.

“I have been blessed to coach with longevity at my alma mater, thanks to the late Dr. Dan Keenan, Rich Ranallo, and Reno Saccoccia,” coach Heatherington said in a letter to the Herald-Star/Daily Times. “All three men were instrumental in hiring me back in 1980, when I began coaching at Harding. In the summer of 1988, Reno called to go get ice cream and asked me if I would take over the baseball program to establish some stability. This 36-year stint also included 12 years of coaching varsity football, three years as head basketball coach, and 14 years as athletic director along with 36 years as head baseball coach. This stretch included working under six superintendents (Dan Keenan, Rich Ranallo, Charles Joyce, Rich Lucci, Mike McVay, and Melinda Young) and countless administration and board members who were all supportive of athletics. If you want to coach, Steubenville Big Red is where you need to be!

“In 1989, it all started with assistant coaches Mark Stacy, and Don Morrison, and it ended in 2025 with assistant coaches Joe Pierro, Justin Banks, and Darin Heatherington, along with all the reserve coaches, especially Jeff Petrelle, who has been the head reserve coach for 24 years.

“All the credit goes to all the above mentioned, along with the 500 some players that dedicated themselves to Big Red Baseball, and especially to my wife Cindy, and two sons Darin, and Mason who let me coach with the passion needed for so long to coach at Big Red. Not only was it an honor to coach former players sons but I got to coach my two sons as well.

“There were great times and memories in all that the TEAMS’ over the years have accomplished

“The players always put the TEAM first and that’s what created our success! “72 players were able to continue their baseball careers to the college level and beyond. Every player that put on the Big Red Baseball uniform, whether they played or not, will always hold a special place in my heart! Players always believed in ‘what time is it?, 212, and it doesn’t matter who we play or where we play, it only matters how we play.’

“Big Red Nation thank you for letting me be a small part of your tradition, ROLL RED.”