Photo Courtesy of Jeff Yoder

The Mid-Prairie Golden Hawk baseball team will have a new coach when they take the diamond next summer. Golden Hawk head coach Andy Greiner announced he was leaving the program last week. Greiner, who served as an assistant during the first decade of the 2000s and head coach since 2015, talked with KCII sports on Saturday’s coaches corner program about his decision. “It’s been a phenomenal run. I’ve been here for 16 years, 10 as an assistant. It takes a lot of sacrifice, not just on your behalf, but also your family. I have three kids and a wife that have sacrificed for 16 years, for what has turned into like a mission for me. I just thought now was the appropriate time to hang up the spikes. I feel like the program is in a really good place.”

In his first stint on staff, Greiner served as an assistant beginning in 2001, and was part of the program for the Golden Hawks trips to the state tournament in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Mid-Prairie won a state championship in 2004. After a brief absence, he returned to lead the program as head man starting with the 2015 season. In his time as head coach, the Golden Hawks posted a 75-64 overall record including a 49-35 mark inside the River Valley Conference. In 2020, the Golden Hawks captured their first overall conference title since 2000, won their first district title and appeared in their first state tournament since 2007.