Douglas High School baseball inducted four members into its 2025 class Saturday. Pictured from left to right are Brady Ovard, Jon Storke, Hal Wheeler and Kaleb Foster.
Photo by Ron Harpin.
Hal Wheeler is not only the winningest coach in Douglas High School baseball history, he’s one of the main reasons the program is where it is today.
The 16-year coach recalled Saturday when Tiger Field was first put out on the northern end of the school.
“This, what you see right here, was all sagebrush. That's where we started from,” said Wheeler. “So we cleared it out and started taking ground balls and there were rocks everywhere. Kids were picking up rocks every night after practice. It was a long, long haul to get to where this place is now.”
Now, the entrance to Tiger Field will send spectators and players right past “Hal Wheeler’s Douglas baseball Hall of Fame.” The 2025 class was inducted Saturday.
“It's a very emotional time for me. We spent a lot of hours out here, you know, with the teams that I've coached and it's just very emotional,” said Wheeler.
Jim Tucker, Douglas’ current head coach, said there were few names that have had as much to do with Tiger baseball as Wheeler.
“Our coaching staff's goal has been to restore the rich tradition of the baseball program down here at Douglas,” said Tucker. “When you think of the coaches that built the program, Hal Wheeler is at the top of the list, along with John Glover. The hall of fame has been an afterthought for the past few years and as we continue to build the program in year two and forward, we wanted to pay homage to somebody who helped build it.”
Three new members joined the Hall of Fame wall in Brady Ovard (Class of 1998), Jon Storke (1996) and Kaleb Foster (2015).
Ovard played football and baseball at Menlo College before going on to Lassen College.
Foster spent four years with the University of Nevada before signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates as an undrafted free agent.
Storke had stops at Cuesta College, Pima College and Fresno State. He was drafted by the Rockies in 1996 and the Giants in 1997.
(Hal Wheeler, right, points to ‘Hal Wheeler’s Douglas Baseball Hall of Fame’ now standing atop the brick wall behind the first base side of Tiger Field. / Ron Harpin)