Its only fitting that in his first year as head coach and the programs first year on the baseball diamond, a Jim Leprowse coached team is a top seed heading into a tournament, and not just any tournament the state tournament.
Such as coming back to Butte to coach the Miners and last year that team winning a state title for the first time since 1953, and then went on to win the Northwest Regional Championship, there is something to be said about coach Jim Leprowse.
In his first year at helm for the Bulldogs they went 11-2 losing to the Belgrade Panthers twice, and other than that they completely steam rolled the competition. The Bulldogs have a lot of returning legion players and some really good young and upcoming players as well that just meshed together this season.
One thing about Jim is his consistency, and ability to coach anyone in the room, I was an avid baseball player growing up from a very early age, this year Jim, his coaches and his players volunteered their time to show the little league programs in Butte ways to get better and they did that and then some.
He showed us as volunteer coaches some of the simplest yet most effective things to help improve a baseball player at an early age that even taught myself and I know many others a thing or two we could use going forward, but what impressed me most were his players.
We broke into three groups, outfield, infield and catching, and the players led the charge, and when I mean led the charge these young men were so darn respectful to not only their coach but to everyone in the room, completely mature beyond their years.
These kids took the show and went with it and the way they showed us the game you would think they had played for years in higher levels of baseball, but they hadn’t they just have a really great coach who has his team bought into the sport and the players responded extremely well.
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you have been, or how good or bad you have played, Jimmy will treat everyone the same, just ask his son Logan.
Earlier this year I was taking photos and covering a game and I overheard him say “damn it he was late so I had to suspend him this game.” and as much as it pained him to do so he holds everyone accountable and that is why they are the team they are today.
He works on attitude a lot and how to represent yourself as a Butte Miner, and Butte High Bulldog and that is with dignity and respect, he said when he coached in college and would recruit it didn’t matter how good the player was, if the attitude wasn’t there, they wouldn’t be a part of his team.
When you look at the success he has had as a coach and not just in Butte you can see why he was the man selected to lead the way for these young men as they head into state this Thursday at 9 am against Florence to make their run at a high school state championship hosted here in Butte at 3 Legends stadium.
