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Tom Kruse served as Marian Central's interim baseball coach to end the season. After leading the Hurricanes to their first regional title since 2011, he's ready to remove the "interim" part of that job title.
The school announced Thursday that Kruse will be the team's full-time head coach next season.
“ I’ve got a good chance to work with great people,” Kruse said in an interview Friday morning. “I’ve got great kids here with great families. Anytime you’re fortunate enough to do that on a daily basis in addition to what I do here, it’s just an added bonus.”
Kruse took over late in the season when coach Benji Winkelman was suspended over a post-game comment. Winkelman told the team after a mid-May loss to Carmel
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Athletic Director Drew Potthoff said Friday that Winkelman has resigned his position as baseball coach, but will be retained as a physical education teacher in the fall.
"Benji is a good man," Potthoff said. "He’s part of our faculty. We’ll go from there. He’s still part of Marian."
Kruse, who also serves as the sophomore football coach and works in the guidance office at Marian, graduated from Marian Central in 1990. He went on to play college baseball at McHenry County College and Charleston Southern. He later coached both programs in some capacity.
He was the head baseball coach at MCC from 1997-2001 and an assistant from 2010-2012. He also served as an infield coach and camp coordinator at Charleston Southern. He was also the sophomore coach at Prairie Ridge in 2013.
After taking over as interim head coach on May 21, Kruse's team dropped its final three regular season games to fall 11 games below .500. But the Hurricanes (12-22) became the surprise of the postseason, when, as the eighth seed in the Grayslake Central Sectional, they upset top-seeded Lakes for the regional title.
"We’ve got a good baseball program," Potthoff said. "Tom’s going to make sure it stays at a high level and will take it to the next level. He did a great job as interim coach. Anytime you can get a gentleman of the caliber of Tom Kruse… it is just a win-win situation all the way around."