14 hours Ago
Growing up in an era before laptops and smartphones, it was routine for student-athletes to play baseball in the spring, football in the fall and basketball in the winter. Though Jennings was a three-sport athlete in the mid-80s at Whiting, he preferred playing on the diamond. After graduating in 1987, Jennings had no clue he'd embark on a 27-year baseball coaching career in the near future – or be inducted into the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
Upon graduation, Jennings attended Indiana State to study radio and television with a dream of becoming a sports broadcaster. Knowing it was a long shot, Jennings always knew teaching and coaching would be his Plan B. Once he received his degree in 1991, Jennings began working in television for the Oakland Athletics minor league organization.
The more time he spent on the field interviewing coaches and players before games, the quicker he realized he may want to pivot toward coaching. Coincidentally when Jennings returned home after the baseball season, he received a phone call asking if he'd want to coach football at Whiting. He was then given an opportunity to lead the baseball program in 1996.
"It was great to return home – that was sort of the safety net," Jennings said. "I coached football there for nine years, I coached basketball and baseball." He added, "It was an opportunity to sort of let things fall into place and still have an income, but yet do what I wanted to do.
" Jennings coached the Oilers for three years before he was referred to Griffith by Todd Iwema. Iwema resigned as Griffith's head baseball coach in June 1998 to take a position at Lake Central. After interviewing for the position, Jennings was exhilarated when he was selected as the Panthers' head baseball coach for the 1998-99 season.
"I thought I was taking over the Yankees because Griffith was like the big dog in the area," Jennings recalled. "They were coming off a football state championship, baseball had some success, basketball was solid, wrestling was obviously good." He was also transferring from a school that had an enrollment of 250, to around 900.
"It was a big step for me, a big jump for me," he said. "Like I said, I thought I was taking over the Yankees." Jennings had early success with the Panthers by guiding them to a Class 3A state appearance in 2001.
Over a 24-year career at Griffith, he led the Panthers to 14 sectional crowns and four conference titles. Jennings has earned conference Coach of the Year four times, and been named the "District Coach of the Year" once. He won 448 games in his 27-year career.
As he reflected on some of his best memories, Jennings said he will never forget coaching at the 2012 North/South All-Star game. It was one of the last times his mom was able to watch him coach before losing her battle with cancer. Another important memory that will live with him forever was Griffith renaming its baseball field "Brian Jennings Field" in 2023.
"It makes me emotional to this day – it was about the community, the kids, the school," he said. "It might be my name at the top, but it was about everybody else who helped build what we had here." He added, "To be a Griffith baseball player meant something – I knew it was an honor to wear the Griffith baseball uniform, to have the word 'Griffith' across your chest.
" Jennings retired from coaching in 2022 but continues to serve as Griffith's assistant principal. Jennings was an English year at Griffith for 13 years, a dean for eight years and now the assistant principal for six. Through the years, Jennings has continued to pursue his sports broadcasting dream.
On the weekends he's an ESPN broadcaster for Indiana State and Valparaiso University. He also fills in for Purdue women's basketball and baseball games. Jennings said he enjoys the change of pace because he can socialize with coaches, but doesn't have to bring the game home.
He also expressed gratitude toward his wife, Luann, who supports his passion for broadcast. "She understands I travel – but I've just been incredibly lucky," he said. "I got to do the two things I wanted to do, and I'm very fortunate to have the family support I have at home with my wife.
" Jennings received a call in early November that he would be a member of the IHSBCA's Hall of Fame 2025 induction class. He became emotional as he described his achievement. "Again, I've never tried to make anything about me.
I don't want to make it about me," he said. "It's about everyone else who's helped me get to this point." In Jennings' first year as a head coach at Whiting, his team won one game.
To go from a single-season victory to an induction into the Hall of Fame would have been impossible without all the support he's received over the past three decades, he said. He said this honor is even more humbling because he learned from a variety of longtime Region baseball coaches including Highland's former coach Dan Miller, the late Bob Shinkan (Munster) and Andrean's current head coach Dave Pishkur. "They were guys who were coaching when I was playing, so I had to earn their respect," he said.
"They all made me work hard to have good teams and to do things the right way." He added, "I think that was part of the challenge for me – I wanted to meet their standards and their expectations because I wanted to be like them." As Jennings reflected on former players he's coached, the biggest reward is seeing them become husbands, fathers and coaches and pursue various career paths.
Jennings has had four players play professionally, including Kody Hoese, who was a first round pick to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2019. "You know, you don't know what kind of an impact you have on people when they're 17 years old and leave here," he said inside his office at Griffith. "But when they reach out to you at 35 and say 'Congratulations' and you say 'Thank you' – that's what's cool.
".
