'You've got to get lucky': Keeping small-town baseball going

DICKINSON — Ian Silbernagel's car rolls into the Belfield ballpark parking lot a few minutes before 7 p.m. The grassy lot overlooks the field. Beyond the right-field fence sit railroad tracks, while a cattle pasture sits adjacent to the first-base dugout.

While most Legion teams practice in the morning or early afternoon, the Knights don't. Coach has to lay concrete all day.

Each evening, he and his father, Kurt, coach the Belfield/South Heart Legion team until dusk settles over the field and fly balls become harder to track.

Judging by the first few fungo swings of practice barely getting three feet off the ground, Ian's still settling into the role.

His dad, Kurt, has spent time on and off as the head coach of both the Legion and high school team, but this year was the right time to hand the reins off to his kid.

When the Silbernagels moved to South Heart before Ian entered sixth grade, there wasn't a Little League program. So Kurt started one. When Ian reached Babe Ruth age, there wasn't a team for that either. Kurt started that, too.

By the time Ian reached high school, Kurt — with plenty of support from the local Legion — helped launch Belfield/South Heart Post 144, bringing Legion baseball back for the first time in over 40 years.

“I grew up in an era when everything was kind of dying,” Kurt said. “I had to hear stories about how big the towns were and how much went on, and in my years everything was disappearing and everybody was co-opting or closing. It's kind of a good feeling to be able to be part of bringing some of that stuff back.”

The rosters aren't exactly loaded to the brim like their counterparts about 20 miles east in Dickinson, so they take in players from wherever they can.

The Knights currently roster two players from Beach in Kirby Dietz and Josh Davidson. Dietz has been playing the last few seasons for the Knights and, before joining them, had to travel all the way to Dickinson to play in its Little League system.

Just a few weeks ago, the Beach School Board approved a co-op with Heart River, allowing players to represent the same program during both the spring and summer seasons.

“It's nice now not having to drive 45 minutes to practice every day,” Dietz said.

For programs like Belfield/South Heart, every player who stays in the game matters.

“It starts even at the Little League level. You gotta keep kids interested,” Ian said. “If you don't grow them at that level, then you have no Legion. You gotta keep getting these guys better and better, because otherwise they're not gonna want to play if you're losing 20-zip every game.”

Building a program is one thing. Finding someone willing to lead it is another. Kurt knows that; everyone does. The previous Legion coaching staff made it clear from the beginning that once their sons graduated, they were stepping away.

“You've got to get lucky and hope that you have that person that comes along that probably has kids in it to begin with,” Kurt said. “Then you have to hope that they stick around and want to keep running it, because it's tough. Most of these towns rely on parents. They might be gung ho about it while their kid is in it, but once the kid graduates, they want to do other things.”

Belfield found someone willing to build a program. About 80 miles south, Hettinger found someone determined to keep one going.

Keeping the tradition going

Hettinger isn't going to boom anytime soon. Ask locals what keeps the town going, and many will point to the hospital. Businesses that once lined the main drag have dwindled to a handful of jewelry shops and boutiques, and a county that once topped nearly 4,000 now hovers around 2,200.

Yet every summer, the ballpark along Mirror Lake is open for play. Players come from Hettinger, Bowman, New England and Lemmon, but for a few months each summer, they all become the Hettinger Bears.

Nolan Dix has become one of the pillars keeping that tradition alive. He's spent the past decade coaching the program — long enough to coach his own children and, this summer, watch them get married.

“I'm getting old,” he said with a wry smile.

He still keeps his daughter on staff as the team scorekeeper, keeping that family dynamic intact. Over the years, Dix has learned what keeps kids coming back.

One afternoon in particular, his catcher, Jordan Jung, had just returned from a trip to Mayville for the Shrine Bowl. An absence that some coaches might see as noncommittal; instead, Dix welcomed him back, handed him his gear and put him right back behind the plate.

“We're flexible down here,” Dix said. “If they go to a wrestling camp, have at it, your spot's still here. There's some teams that aren't flexible; the coach is like, 'Hey, if you're gonna play baseball, you gotta be here.' Well, you can't do that to kids."

That flexibility has become one of the reasons players keep coming back. It doesn't have the same pop of a budding program like Belfield/South Heart, and the most nervous points of the season don't even come on the field – rather, months before.

“There's times I've said, 'Hey, Legion meeting tonight at seven,' I cross my fingers, and I'm counting numbers. I'm like, 'Yeah, we got 11. Sweet,'” Dix said.

Dix won't coach forever – he knows that. When the time comes, it's naturally lined up for him to do so. His assistant coach has a couple of kids coming through the system, and once they reach Legion, that's likely when he passes the torch.

But that day hasn't come yet. For now, Hettinger still has its baseball guy.

“I don't know what the heck I'd do if I didn't coach baseball,” Dix said.

Every year, he'll keep holding his breath when Legion meetings roll around, hoping enough players walk through the door for another summer.

Built to compete

Pete Dobitz addressed his 14U Babe Ruth team after the final out of a doubleheader against Bismarck. The Americans had won both games. Dickinson hung around, but Bismarck's depth eventually won out.

The postgame talk lasted longer than a normal summer ball speech in the dog days of July, sounding more like a varsity coach dissecting a spring conference loss to Minot than a youth baseball game.

Maybe that's because, to Dobitz, there isn't much difference.

Every summer game is another opportunity to prepare players for what awaits them in high school.

He's been doing this coaching thing for the better part of 30 years, 26 of those in Dickinson. If you took a peek at his hat collection, you'd find just about every horse logo in the city's baseball system. From the Cavalry and Mustangs to the Dickinson Mavericks varsity team, Dobitz has coached nearly every stop along the pipeline before returning to take over the 14U Babe Ruth/Pony squad.

On the surface, Dickinson isn't a program that has to hold its breath at the Legion meeting. Instead, Dobitz's challenge is preparing the program to compete against teams with deeper rosters and larger enrollments.

Dobitz doesn't care much for the label "small-ball culture," but the term has become attached to Dickinson because it's the only Class A program truly located on the western edge of the state.

Despite being one of the smaller Class A schools in the WDA, Dickinson has consistently found ways to compete. During his time, the Mavericks have won three state championships.

While some would expect him to be coaching Legion baseball, not Pete. He's back where much of Dickinson's baseball culture begins, coaching the city's 13- and 14-year-old Babe Ruth team.

“I always tell the kids, your daddy ain't here anymore,” Dobitz said. “Because down at the Mustang level, dads lean against the fence and tell Tommy what to do every play. Well, he ain't here anymore. You now have to think for yourself about what you're supposed to do.”

The philosophy has carried over to the high school level. Despite graduating a large senior class, Dickinson finished one run shy of a state tournament berth this spring with a roster built largely around sophomores and freshmen slotted throughout the lineup.

“I think it's just that we have to play almost perfectly because of our numbers,” Dobitz said.

This spring, 45 kids showed up for high school baseball. Of those, 42 had already been coached by Dobitz at the Little League level.

According to Dobitz, those numbers don't come close to the Class A powers across the Missouri River.

“We kind of play with a little bit of an edge too. We're sick and tired of getting our butts handed to us when we have our small numbers,” he said.

Dickinson may never have the numbers of Bismarck or Fargo, but it has something just as valuable: continuity. The next group of players is already coming through the program, learning the same game years before they ever reach varsity.

Ryan Crossingham, the Roughriders' Legion head coach, knows firsthand that the chip on Dickinson's shoulder is very real.

“We are kind of looked at as the little brother to the teams on the east, and so there's a little bit of an edge that we play with,” Crossingham said. “People don't really give the teams on the western part of the state as much respect as the teams on the east do. That's something our guys have to deal with, and it's up to them to change that narrative. We want to be able to compete toe to toe with those teams every summer, and some years we can, some years we can't.”

Nearly three decades after arriving in Dickinson, Dobitz is still at the center of that pipeline. Every summer, another group learns the same fundamentals before eventually reaching varsity.

“It's just ingrained in me,” Dobitz said. “I always say that I am more proud of my boys off the field than on the field, because if you take care of things off the field, what's on the field will take care of itself.”

Back in Belfield, a month has passed since Ian Silbernagel took over the program. On a 96-degree July afternoon, he's back at the ballpark after another week of pouring concrete. The transition from assistant to head coach feels a little more natural now.

By day, He lays concrete. By night, he's laying a different kind of foundation, one his father spent years building before handing it over.

“I love this time of year,” Ian said. “It's my favorite. I love this weather. I've been digging it.”

Published link:https://www.thedickinsonpress.com/sports/prep/youve-got-to-get-lucky-keeping-small-town-baseball-going