MVCTC Helps Restore Piece of Warrior Baseball History

Under the direction of new coach Matt Gentry, the Warrior Baseball program is on the uptick.

The Warriors currently have four wins on the young season (one shy of their total for the 2025 season), the field is on its way to being a premier facility thanks to the work put in by the new staff, and now a piece of Warrior Baseball history has been restored to its former glory.

Thanks to the help of Professor Doug Gayman and the Miami Valley Career Technology Center (MVCTC) Construction Lab, the "Coach James Harrison Field" baseball sign that donned the stadium for so many years has been restored and will soon be back up, overlooking the field.

Gayman's students, Samuel Connolly-Davis and Andileese Reid, worked on a project where they power washed the sign, cut off a broken corner and replaced it, and painted the sign a fresh red over the course of the last couple of weeks. The sign will be picked up and installed in the coming days by maintenance's Zack Perry - symbolizing the total team effort and the community we have in Warrior Athletics.

The sign commemorates former Warrior Baseball Coach, James "Jim" Harrison who led the program from 1963 to 1988. His teams won the then Western Ohio League (WOL) five times ('68, '69, '78, '83, & '85) and were district champions three times ('77, '84, & '86). Additionally, they were Regional Champions in 1977 - the programs last and only Regional Championship.

Jim is remembered as being a fantastic coach, amazing teacher, and even better man. After his retirement from Wayne after the 1988 season, he continued his career as the head coach at Sinclair where he remained until his passing in November of 2008. When he passed, he was the all-time winningest coach at Sinclair. Jim was inducted into the Dayton Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame in 1978, the Miami Valley Baseball Coaching Association Hall of Fame in 1990, and the Wayne High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002. The Wayne Baseball Field was named the James Harrison Field in 1989.

Thank you to everyone who had a hand in helping restore this important emblem of Warrior Athletic history!