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MOWRYSTOWN — While guiding his Whiteoak Wildcats through each of the past 32 seasons, Chris Veidt has never thought about any sort of Hall of Fame induction.
But when you win 462 games, 12 conference championships, 16 sectional titles, four district titles and earn a trip to a state semifinal in that timespan, an HOF induction warrants itself.
Recently, Veidt indeed earned an Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame nod. And although the honor may still not have sank in, he’s humbled, proud and taken back by the announcement.
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“This honor means a great deal to me, quite simply because of the quality of high school baseball in Ohio and the integrity and knowledge of our OHSBCA,” Veidt said. “I most definitely never worked towards this honor. I believe in the ‘process.’ What can I do today to make myself, these players, and Whiteoak High School better? That’s what I work towards. Excellence does not have a final destination. It’s not a place. It’s something you work toward every day. I thought it could be on the horizon, more because of conversations I’ve had with other coaches and past Hall of Fame members and what we’ve been able to accomplish as a program the last several years. I honestly did not expect it to occur this year.”
Veidt’s baseball journey started long ago and has plenty of stops along the way.
His travels include stops with fellow OHSBCA Hall of Famer Ron Janey and Cincinnati Reds Hall of Famer Brooks Lawrence. The rest, as they say, is history.
“The beginning of this dream started with a foundation gifted to me by my high school coach, [Janey] and my college head coach, [Lawrence] at Logan High School and Wilmington College, respectively,” Veidt said. “I desired to be a head coach because of the positive influence those two men had in my life. In 1992, I took a chance on a place I had never been to and took the job I still hold near and dear to me. I won the lottery, so to speak. The community here is so supportive … giving, hard-working, and passionate about sports. Given the fantastic community support, quality assistant coaches, and talented players, we have been lucky enough to build a state-renowned baseball program.”
The Wildcats lived up to that reputation in 2023. This past spring, they won 27 games alongside another SHAC championship and captured the program’s second consecutive district title.
Eventually, they were knocked out of the postseason in a regional final. But that’s just the latest success-filled season.
The Wildcats’ district championship in 2022 came in the midst of a 21-10 season. That was Whiteoak’s first district crown since 2018 — when they finished 28-3 and won the school’s first-ever regional championship.
The key to it all? There’s several. But the way that Veidt runs the program and the philosophies he uses to shape young minds have a lot to do with it.
“The coaching philosophies that are true staples of our program are culture, culture, culture,” Veidt said. “The grass is greener where you water it. Getting kids to understand what an honor it is to play baseball at Whiteoak, with the staff and people they are competing with, a strict adherence to the fundamentals of the game and work ethic … ‘Greatness is a bunch of small things done well added up over time that most people think are too small to matter.’ Lastly, the ability to be able to handle and respond to adversity. Resilience. Surrendering the outcome. Staying process-oriented. Understanding that hardship can prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”
As Veidt enters his 33rd season in Mowrystown, he’ll do so after graduating several important pieces from last year’s roster, including All-Ohioans Landon Barnett, Luken Roades and Nate Price.
But when you’ve built a program like Veidt has, one with a proven track record of success, losses to graduation sting just a little less.
As of now, the Wildcats are scheduled to begin their season with trips to Manchester and North Adams on March 26 and 28. They’ll play their first home game on April 2 against Ripley.
“As a program, I honestly just want to make being a Whiteoak Wildcat a life-changing event. I wish to leave each kid in a better place mentally, physically, and socially than when they entered the program,” Veidt said. “I aim to continue to build and maintain our state-level facility. A state championship would be the icing on the cake. We’ve been close. The Final Four, number one state ranking, number two state ranking and several regional appearances. I would love to give this community something they will never forget.”
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