May
3, 2004
Having won a national championship at Cowley as a player,
and having been a part of close to 170 wins as an assistant coach at
the school, Aaron Sanderholm is leaving the Tiger baseball program at
the end of the season.
Sanderholm played center field for
the Tigers in 1996 and in 1997, the first of two national championship
seasons. He then transferred to Washburn University in Topeka and played
two seasons for the Ichabods. After earning his bachelor’s degree
in general studies, Sanderholm stayed on at Washburn as an assistant
coach.
He joined the Tiger coaching staff
in the 2001 season, and helped lead Cowley to a third place finish
at that year’s NJCAA
World Series. He has helped Cowley remain a perennial power in the Jayhawk
Conference Eastern Division while working with the team’s outfielders,
and serving as the team’s first base coach.
Sanderholm has thoroughly enjoyed his time coaching
with the Tigers.
“The four years I have had here have been special,” Sanderholm
said. “I have made some connections with some kids that I would
not have made if I would not have been doing this. It’s been a
lot of fun. I’ll miss the camraderie of being around the guys.”
Sanderholm is going into business with his uncle Brian
at Ark City Glass Company. He will also give up his duties as dorm manager
of the Storbeck Dormitory. With a two-year old daughter, Sanderholm said
moving out of the dorms was essential.
“I’m looking forward to the new job, but
I’ll miss the baseball part of it,” Sanderholm said. “I’ve
got other responsibilities now, and with a young one it’s time
to move on and put her first and foremost.”
Cowley head coach Dave Burroughs will miss working
with Sanderholm, but is happy he will still be in town.
“It’s been a good ride,” Burroughs
said. “When they are a former player of yours it goes deeper
than a coach-coach relationship, it’s like seeing somebody in
your family move on. We wish him the best, and we can never repay what
he has done for our program.”
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