Jerry Roling says a passion for baseball has kept him in the coaching ranks for 39 years. The head coach at Dubuque Wahlert became only the fifth Iowa high school baseball coach to reach 900 wins this past weekend. Roling says he doesn’t get caught up in the numbers, but says it does make him feel good. He says he’s been fortunate to have a good career and was able to start as a varsity coach right out of college.
Roling’s career started at Holy Cross Leo and after five years he moved on to Cascade where he coached for 29 years. He is in his fifth season at Dubuque Wahlert. Roling says he “had a severe passion for the game” after growing up with baseball and other athletics. He says has never thought much about getting out of coaching and is thankful to have been able to do it for this many years.
The coaching profession provides a lot of highs and lows but Roling says he has always enjoyed being part of it. Roling says the greatest rewards are the memories, the friendships and relationships that he has built throughout the year. He says he’s gotten to coach a lot of great kids who grew to be great adults as well, so those are more important than the numbers.
The Golden Eagles are tenth ranked in class 3A in the latest Radio Iowa/Coaches Poll.