Fostoria to honor longtime softball coach

FOSTORIA -- Don Correll didn't quit after his first junior high-level summer softball team did not win a contested matchup.And he's not going to quit now that he's in the fight of his life.Correll, a longtime summer coach who not only prepared players to play for Fostoria High School but helped see them through their careers as an FHS assistant coach, is battling Stage 4 cancer that was first detected in one of his legs in December 2021. And, he's coming off a heart attack he suffered in March.But the 72-year-old plans to be present when the FHS athletic department honors him Saturday prior to the Lady Red Invitational at the Lady Red fields, north of Fostoria Junior/Senior High School.A tree will be planted on the premises with a plaque embedded nearby in recognition of Correll's work. Fostoria Athletic Director Tim Murray said a ceremony is slated for 9:30 a.m., followed by the beginning of the tournament at 10 a.m.It will be the second honor noted at the field, where a plaque honoring the contributions of former varsity head coach Mike Lee adorns a building behind the backstop. Correll coached with Lee in the early 2000s and also worked not only with the first Sen-San-Wyan League team from Fostoria, but with the Fostoria RedHawks organization, which helped prepare young players to contribute to the softball programs at both FHS and the former St. Wendelin High School.The honor follows the suggestion of Correll's youngest daughter, Ashley Correll-Rudolph, to the FHS athletic department. Correll-Rudolph, who played travel ball for her father and for her dad and Lee at FHS and now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, recently let her father know of the impending ceremony."I was just overwhelmed," Correll said in a recent interview at his home near Fostoria. "To have that kind of honor bestowed upon me is ... I was beyond words, I know that. It was pretty emotional at that time for me. I've got a lot of things going on in my life right now."They're telling me I've got a year or two to live. I told them, 'No. Uh-uh. I've got longer than that.' Then, on top of everything else, I had a heart attack. Then, I'm going, 'Well, I guess we just keep right on fighting.' I told the doctor, 'You told me and my wife I've got one year or two years to live. That's your estimate. That's not mine. That's yours.' I said, 'I've seen estimates be wrong a lot of times. And I'll tell you this: You do me right and I'll fight as hard as I can to stay here as long as I can."Then my daughter called and said, 'I've talked to everybody and we want to do this for you.' I was just flabbergasted."Fostoria softball had some of its best years with players who developed under the tutelage of Lee, varsity assistant Correll and junior varsity coach Gabe Sierra The Lady Red was a Division II district runner-up in 2004, the year after Correll-Rudolph, a standout pitcher, graduated.Correll-Rudolph said she's grateful to her alma mater for agreeing to recognize her father."It's great to honor these people who mentored you, and to give back to the," she said in a phone interview. "I've been thinking about this for years. Those fields have his blood, sweat and tears out there. I just felt he deserved some kind of recognition."Correll, a Lakota High School graduate, was a fine baseball player in his youth and drew the interest of Tony Lucadello, a Fostoria resident who for many years scouted for the Philadelphia Phillies. A knee injury sustained while playing basketball curtailed his baseball hopes, though he did go on to play slow-pitch softball at a high level in the city.He hadn't been involved in fast-pitch softball, he said, until then-Fostoria High School coach Mike Cool noted that a lack of a feeder system in the city set the program back."He said, 'You know, Don, by the time I teach these girls to play, they graduate," Correll said. "I need a feeder. I need someone to come in and teach these kids the fundamentals, how to play this game before they become freshmen. I said, 'I'll give it a try.' "I didn't play fast-pitch, but I played hardball and I was pretty good at that. He set me up in the Sen-San-Wyan League. He picked out the girls for me. ... I actually stayed with those kids until they went to college."As so often happens, Correll's coaching career got off to a rough start. His first club's lone victory came by forfeit at the end of the season, when the opposing coach declined to bring his club to Fostoria for what he expected to be an easy victory."That was like gutting me," Correll said. "I'm not a loser and I felt that was an insult. In the offseason, I really worked hard at the craft, doing the things I needed to do. The next year, thank God they let me coach again, and we were at .500. After that, we never looked back. But I learned. It was a hard lesson that first year. But I got through that."Lee came to rely on Correll as his hitting mastermind. And when Lee, who enjoyed coaching success at St. Wendelin, Fostoria and Woodmore high schools, was inducted into the Ohio High School Fastpitch Softball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2005, he invited Correll to join him at the ceremony."We set new records every year and it made me feel proud because what I gave Mike was, they were battle-ready," he said. "Then, you could refine. And Mike could. There was no doubt about that. He could step it up one more notch and we didn't have to wait until they were seniors to play."Correll said he also liked that he could help set a tone for a youngster's life."You can probably take this for any sporting activity: It's life," he said. "It teaches you to be able to accept a loss and to be able to keep an even keel for your wins, your losses and to have confidence, self-esteem and esteem for each other."