LeClair's story will be a book
Vermonters are prominent in volume to be released in March
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Keith LeClair stands in his familiar spot, the third base coaching spot, while piloting the East Carolina University Pirates. LeClair died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2006 and a book about his life will be out in March. Some Vermonters are prominent in the book, including Clemson coach Jack Leggett and Tennessee coach Todd Raleigh. PHOTO PROVIDED |
Toolbox
By Tom Haley STAFF WRITER - Published: November 25, 2009
Todd Raleigh and Jack Leggett were driving across North Carolina together, two Vermont natives thinking they were going to say good-bye to a close friend.
It was April of 2002 and East Carolina University baseball coach Keith LeClair had just returned home with his team from a baseball tournament in Charlotte. He collapsed and was unresponsive.
He had only been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in 2001 and his wife Lynn had to make a decision about whether to put Keith on a ventilator, a decision that came much sooner than she was expecting.
Raleigh, the Western Carolina University baseball coach at the time, and Leggett, who holds the reins of the Clemson University baseball team, were pretty sure they were going to see their friend one last time.
That's one of the riveting stories in the book titled "Coaching Third: The Keith LeClair Story," written by Bethany Bradsher.
Keith and Lynn's children were only 3 and 6 at the time and not ready to say good-bye. He was placed on the ventilator and lived until 2006 and the age of 40.
Raleigh was part of the great Missisquoi High School baseball teams in Swanton that won three consecutive state championships from 1986 through 1988. He is now the head baseball coach at Tennessee. Leggett is a South Burlington native, who resurrected the University of Vermont baseball program before heading south to coach Western Carolina, where LeClair was one of his players and later became head coach at Clemson.
There was plenty of material for Bradsher, who recently completed the book. It will be released in early March to coincide with the Keith LeClair Classic, a tournament that will have ECU playing Illinois, West Virginia and Western Carolina, March 5-7.
The title is a reference not only to the fact that LeClair always coached third base, but also to the fact that being stricken with the disease caused him to reorder his priorities and put God and his family first and second, and coaching baseball third.
An intensely religious man, LeClair discovered that he had placed coaching No. 1 for awhile, said Bradsher.
Leggett, Raleigh and LeClair were extremely close, but it was another Vermonter who gave LeClair his nickname of "Condo." Bill Currier, the University of Vermont baseball coach until the program was disbanded after the 2009 season, was a graduate assistant at Western Carolina for a short time. When LeClair was working out and bulked up, Currier said, "You're not as big as a house, but you are as big as a condo." The name stuck.
Bradsher has been a freelance writer, covering East Carolina University sports for different outlets. She was familiar with LeClair and his story and thought his life would make an outstanding book, though a book is project she had never tackled before.
After all, few people have touched as many lives and accomplished as much in 40 years as LeClair. The ECU Pirates play in Clark-LeClair Stadium, he has a tournament named for him, his No. 23 uniform has been retired at Western Carolina University, he is in halls of fame and his records are mind-boggling. LeClair's won-lost mark at Western Carolina was 229-135-2. He was 212-96-1 at ECU. He guided the East Carolina Pirates to three consecutive NCAA Regional Tournament appearances before he had to step down.
But despite the amazing record on the baseball field, it is his battle with Lou Gehrig's disease that is an important piece of his legacy and that promises to make the book a great read.
"Even after he was unable to move or communicate (talk), he reached so many people. He e-mailed devotionals to hundreds of people," Bradsher said.
The relationship between LeClair and Leggett was special as was the one between LeClair and Raleigh.
Bradsher said the emotion that came from Leggett was intense as he she sat in his Clemson office and interviewed him for the book.
"He looked at him as a son," Bradsher said. "Hearing his stories was gripping."
After graduating from Fall Mountain Regional High School in Langdon, N.H., LeClair became one of Leggett's top players at Western Carolina where Rutland High baseball coach Kevin Bellomo was one LeClair's teammates. After his college career, LeClair signed with the Atlanta Braves.
But when Leggett went to Clemson as an assistant, LeClair succeeded him as the head man at Western Carolina at the tender age of 25.
LeClair's relationship with Raleigh was no less special.
After LeClair was housebound with the disease, Raleigh made the six-hour drive across North Carolina from Cullowhee to Greenville every February to visit him.
Raleigh said even when the disease robbed LeClair of his ability to talk or move, it could not take his sense of humor.
After one of Raleigh's drives across North Carolina for a visit, the news just broke about ECU's new baseball stadium being named Clark-LeClair Stadium. The William H. Clark family of Greenville had donated $1.5 million toward the facility.
Raleigh made the comment to LeClair that it should have been named LeClair-Clark Stadium.
Keith quickly typed on his computer screen, "Money is better than legacy," and the two friends laughed.
It is Keith LeClair's legacy that is captured in Bradsher's manuscript.
And when the book comes out, she promises it will be available in Vermont and New Hampshire outlets due to his many connections in this area.
tom.haley@rutlandherald.com
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