By Dani Tietz
dani@sjodaily.com
Greg Immke has been working to touch the lives of young men and women through baseball and softball programs for more than a decade.
“Hey, I’m glad you’re here.”
In a room filled with families, baseball players who have gone on to participate at the collegiate level and four baseball teams of nine-and 10-year old boys, Greg Immke, founder of the Bandits Baseball organization, gently grabs a boy by the arm, makes eye contact with him and says, “Hey, I’m glad you’re here.”
A high school standout at St. Joseph-Ogden, a pitcher for Parkland College and in the Eastern Illinois Baseball League, baseball is no longer about what he can do as an athlete, but rather, touching the lives of young men and women though baseball and softball programs.
Putting aside personal accolades, Immke refocused his mission from striking out batters to providing opportunities that allowed a community of baseball or softball lovers to work hard in order to find personal and team success.
“I tell people all the time, I don’t know much in life: I know grass and baseball,” Immke, who also owns S&G Custom Mowing, said. “That’s the only two things I know. So, what little I know, I put a lot of effort into. I tell kids all the time, whatever you choose to do in life, do it the best you can.
“Everyone is going to struggle, so you just try to impress upon the kids that whatever you do, do it 100 percent.”
After coaching his oldest children, Shelby, Abby and Brock, in rec ball, Immke got involved with coaching the Fast Pitch Cruisers softball program and then developed the Bandits Baseball program in the St. Joseph area when Brock was nine-years old.
With a mission to provide local opportunities for local children to have a quality baseball education, Immke saw Brock and the Bandit teammates through graduation. He also coached his youngest son, Isaiah’s Bandit baseball team before it dispersed.
Until three years ago, Immke used his lawn care storage shed as a batting facility for local players. Today, youth baseball programs near St. Joseph rent out a baseball practice facility on his rural property to give their players access to pitching, hitting and batting opportunities in the winter months.
Immke stepped aside from coaching the Bandits after his son, Brock, graduated from the program in 2014.
Alongside an established business that employs nine lawn care professionals, Immke now spends his time giving back to the baseball and softball community through coaching his daughter Shane’s year-round travel softball team in Peoria while also coaching the Prairieview-Ogden Junior High baseball and the Heritage High School softball teams.
Last year, Immke rekindled the Bandits program when St. Joseph resident Josh Jones asked him to host a new group of young young baseball hopefuls.
Jones not only wanted a local travel team option for his son, but also wanted to give a new generation the opportunity to find the same success that Bandits players knew years ago.
In 2018, the Bandits fielded two local teams from the St. Joseph, Ogden and Royal areas. The 2019 season will include four teams made up of regional players.
“The goal isn’t to be huge,” Immke said. “That isn’t what we are trying to do at all. We are trying to teach the kids lessons through baseball.”
Immke mentors the young coaches that are guiding the next generation of Bandits.
Players who work alongside the Bandits organization learn lessons about accountability, responsibility and work ethic. Immke passes out T-shirts at the beginning of each season with “no excuses” written on the back.
“I see a lot of kids through here,” he said. “They might have an excuse or reason why they didn’t do it or why it didn’t work, and in baseball as in life, excuses don’t go very far.
“I’ve got nine employees with my business. We’ve got five children, and it’s the same concept, there’s not a lot of excuses that build anything.”
Immke also makes sure that players, coaches and parents know that they are representing an organization that is built upon good character.
“How do they act at the diamond? How do they act towards the umpire? The other team? How do parents act?” he said, emphasizing that each is a point of importance.
Immke said he wants to live by the standard he asks his teams to follow.
“I coach all the time;” he said. “I don’t ever get mad at umpires. Ever.”
Unlike some other youth organizations across the nation, the Bandits pride themselves on inclusivity with youngsters who want to hone their skills and become better players. The organization does not hold tryouts, and when possible, makes sure everyone bats.
Knowing that athletes develop at different stages as children, Immke has seen how this philosophy has benefited players, including his own son.
When Immke’s son, Brock, was 9 years old, the Bandits team set goals for the players. When they went into junior high school, the goal, if the player so chose, was to start on the junior high baseball team.
“All eight Bandits that were from St. Joseph started in seventh grade,” Immke said.
As the boys aged, their next goal was to get a varsity uniform at their respective high schools as a freshmen.
“Everybody got a varsity uniform except my kid, Brock,” he said. “Both of my boys were late bloomers.
“He was disappointed, but as a coach, I’m telling him how he has to approach this,” Greg Immke said.
“Fast forward to his senior year, he didn’t lose a game pitching. He was the team MVP, he was the Pitcher of the Year and he was All-State. And he was the only one who didn’t get a varsity uniform (as a freshmen).”
Brock is now a fifth-year senior, pitching at the University of Illinois Springfield.
“Don’t put those kids where you think they are going to be because you never know when they get older,” Greg Immke added.
Jones said that his Bandits’ team follows the leadership of Immke by not talking about wins and loses.
“It’s keep getting better, it’s work hard and try to improve,” he said.
“It’s a culture that we are trying to teach them,” Immke said. “And the parents, too. If you have a parent who is only about wins and loses, this isn’t the place.”
The product of this framework has led to roughly 30 baseball and softball players receiving scholarships to play at the collegiate level.
St. Joseph-Ogden graduate and Purdue University pitcher Dalton Parker said that the Bandits organization really helped him, and others, to find success.
“They instilled hard work, and just being able to care,” Parker said. “We are a small, close knit group of guys in a small town of best friends. We had one goal and we could carry that throughout school, baseball, travel team, just working hard toward common goals.”
Professional baseball player Cole Taylor (from Salt Fork), who currently plays for an affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels, the Inland Empire 66ers, said being a part of the organization led to more than just success on the field, though.
“You become a family over travel ball,” he said. You have a bond with the guys you spent the entire summer with, whether it’s one, two, three, four years. It’s just nice to come back and see guys you haven’t seen in a while.”
For Greg Immke, this is a great reward for years of hard work.
In that same room that held 9 and 10-year old Bandit hopefuls, six former Bandit players, including Taylor, Parker and Brock Immke, gathered in the winter practice facility during their time away from school to talk to the boys about how the Bandit program helped shape their lives.
Immke lit up as each athlete walked through the door.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he said.
