Editorial: Standing ovation for Coyote baseball team

Tuesday, June 3, 2003 | 9:04 a.m.

The "Prognosticator of the Year" award, if there were one, should go to Tim Chambers, head coach of the Community College of Southern Nevada baseball team. After eight seasons as the head baseball coach at Bishop Gorman High School -- his teams won six division titles there and he also coached three American Legion teams to state championships during that time -- he was chosen to start a baseball team at CCSN. Before coaching the college's first game on Feb. 1, 2000, Chambers told a Sun sports reporter: "...within three years I think we can be a powerhouse."

Saturday night, his team won the Junior College World Series at Grand Junction, Colo. The Coyotes showed heart as well as talent. They lost the first game, and each one after that was a "must win." They won the next five games -- two of them over the nation's top-ranked junior college team -- to take the national championship. The Coyotes' 55-10 season, capped by their World Series victory, proved that they are, as Chambers predicted, a powerhouse.

It hasn't been easy for Chambers. In his dual role as the college athletic director, financial pressure forced him to drop women's soccer and the men's and women's basketball teams. He took a lot of heat for downsizing the athletic department, but now he's saying, "I believe we'll bring it back and we'll have a full-fledged athletic program here in the future."

If anyone can make this happen, it's the man who predicted that a college with no baseball program would soon become a powerhouse. We congratulate Chambers and his team, and hope that all CCSN sports benefit from the championship.