January 28, 2010

Long time baseball coach to be inducted into Tiger Hall of Fame

Dave Burroughs has won 868 games in 22 seasons as the head baseball coach of the Cowley College Tigers. He has led the Tigers to 13 Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division titles in the past 15 seasons, and seven trips to the JUCO World Series in the past 14 seasons. He has been named the Jayhawk East Coach of the Year each of the last three seasons and was named the NJCAA Coach of the Year in 1997 and 1998 after leading the Tigers to back-to-back JUCO World Series titles.

All of these accomplishments have led to him being selected for the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame, in which Burroughs will be inducted on Saturday, Feb. 6.

“It’s a privilege and an honor,” Burroughs said. “This is a team award, there are so many people that are involved in this.”

Cowley athletic director, Tom Saia, is looking forward to seeing his friend be inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame.

“I have never been around a better baseball coach,” Saia said. “He has got a great work ethic and is a great family man. I am very fortunate to be associated with him and to have him in my life.”

Burroughs has been involved with baseball since a young boy and always knew he wanted to work with the sport.

“My dad introduced us to baseball at an early age,” Burroughs said. “My family has had a love affair with the game for a long time. Like most kids I wanted to be a big league player, but I knew I wasn’t going to play forever. So, I knew I wanted to coach even when I was playing baseball in high school.”

The Ketchum, Okla., native was an outstanding athlete. Upon graduating from Ketchum High School in 1975, he signed to play baseball at the University of Oklahoma as a catcher. But that same year he was drafted by the Kansas City Royals organization and decided to forfeit his amateur playing status. He played for the Royals’ Rookie League team in Sarasota, Fla., with the likes of U.L. Washington, Clint Hurdle, Steve Busby and other future Major League stars.

He left baseball two years later and enrolled at Northeastern Oklahoma College at Tahlequah, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1982.

From the fall of 1982 to the spring of 1984, Burroughs served as assistant coach at Bacone College in Oklahoma. And from 1985-86, he was an assistant at Northeastern State at Tahlequah. He left baseball for a year prior to coming to Cowley in 1988.

Burroughs met his wife, Vickie, during this time, so he decided to get a way from baseball and took a job working construction. However, it would not be long before the game of baseball called him back.

That call came from Dave Daulton, the father of former Major League Baseball player, Darren Daulton. Mr. Daulton asked Burroughs if he would be interested in the head coaching position at Cowley.

“I didn’t even know they had a baseball program,” Burroughs said.

Burroughs had only been in Arkansas City one previous time, when he had to sit in his truck in the parking lot of City Ball Park to wait out a hail storm.

“It’s funny how things turn out because now Arkansas City is my home,” Burroughs said.

Even though Burroughs inherited a Tiger baseball team, which had not posted a winning season since 1975, he knew he could get things turned around quickly.

“Like any other job I wanted to put my stamp on the program,” Burroughs said. “I was young and arrogant and came in telling people we would win a national championship someday. I thought we would win one in my first three to five years there, not 10 years.”

Having grown up around baseball and having coached legion baseball with his father, Darrel, in the summer, helped Burroughs perfect his trade.

Another benefit to coaching at Cowley has been Burroughs ability to spend each day working with his brother, Darren, who has served as the team’s assistant coach the past 20 seasons.

“I don’t really have the words to describe it, but it has been a fun ride,” Burroughs said. “This institution is lucky to have two head coaches, he has no peers and is as deserving to go into the Hall of Fame as I am.”

The pair have guided the Tigers to some impressive seasons of late. Cowley is 625-233 (.737 winning percentage) in the last 14 seasons and has won at least 34 games in each of the last 17 seasons.

And yet another amazing statistic: Since 1992, Burroughs has led the Tigers to the Eastern Sub-Regional championship Saturday every year but one. All totaled, Burroughs has led Cowley to 14 conference titles and seven region championships. He has amassed an overall record of 868 wins and 372 losses as coach of the Tigers.

“We had a plan and enough courage to stick with it,” Burroughs said. “We never deviated from the plan when we would hit a bump in the road.”

He has had over 200 players taken in the Major League Baseball draft, including four current and two former players that were selected in this year’s draft. He has also coached 16 players that have received All-American honors and numerous players that have been named All-Conference, All-Region, and Academic All-American.

“We try to recruit a little better each year,” Burroughs said.

The JUCO World Series winning teams in 1997 and 1998 were a special group, with the teams combining to go 107-20. After starting the 1998 season with a record of 4-6, the Tigers won 50 of its last 53 games and went 34-0 en route to the Jayhawk East title.

“We had a lot of people on those teams that were driven and that bought into our philosophy,” Burroughs said. “They worked hard and had the same dream we had, that is what made those teams so special.”

Preparing to enter his 23rd season as head coach of the Tiger baseball team, Burroughs can’t see himself coaching anywhere else.

“I thought I would turn the program around and be out of here in a couple of years,” Burroughs said. “Well, it’s home now and I hope it will be the place I get to retire from because this institution has been very good to me and my family.”

Once again, Cowley returned to the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, CO. during the 2009 season. Although the Tigers came up short of capturing their third World Series title, you can bet Cowley will be back in the hunt again this year.

“Dave expects to compete for a national title every year,” Saia said. “If anybody deserves to be in the Hall of Fame its Dave Burroughs.”

The passion to work with young people still burns inside Burroughs as he has no plans to call it quits any time soon, which will be a relief to Tiger fans, who have grown accustomed to the baseball team’s winning ways.

“I enjoy what I do and being able to be with those guys every day,” Burroughs said. “I still want to go back to the World Series and try to win one more title.”