Milestone feat for South baseball coach

It’s a milestone that only 25 men have reached in the history of Nassau County high school sports, and for that reason, it was worth a celebration.

Valley Stream South High School varsity baseball coach Ken Ward notched his 300th career victory in the final regular season game this year, a 22-4 defeat of Great Neck North on May 11. About 60 people turned out to Charlie Meaney’s on July 8 to celebrate Ward and his accomplishment, including high school officials, former and current players, fellow coaches, family and friends.

“It was a great surprise,” said Ward, who thought he was just meeting Glenn Wyche, the South High junior varsity baseball coach, for dinner. Making the night even more special, Ward said, was that his 87-year-old mother got to experience the celebration as she was up for a visit from Florida.

Ward has been coaching varsity baseball in Valley Stream for 24 years. His first year was at North, and he has been leading the team at South ever since. He has also coached the junior varsity team for South, junior varsity for Levittown Memorial and had one year as assistant coach at Adelphi University.

He graduated from Calhoun High School in 1971 and was drafted as a shortstop by the Montreal Expos. But Ward got a scholarship from Adelphi and decided to play college ball instead.

Ward didn’t make a big deal out of his 300th win. After the victory, he told his wife and brought home a small cake with “300” written on it. He also mentioned it to an official from the Nassau County Coach’s Association, so it could be included in the journal for the annual awards dinner. But no one else knew.

That was until his friend Rich Hess figured it out. Hess, knowing Ward was close to the 300-win milestone, found the mention in the journal.

Having coached against Ward with Malverne in the early 1990s and with Manhasset from 1994-2009, Hess said the two developed a good, competitive friendship.

“Every year, we always played South,” Hess said. “I witnessed real quick that he does things the right way. He’s an old-school guy with the old-school values.”