Matt Emmons leaves Henry to coach baseball at Pekin

Henry-Senachwine coach Matt Emmons (right) resigned after leading the Mallards for five seasons. Emmons has taken the varsity baseball head coaching position at Pekin.

Matt Emmons thought he would teach and coach at Henry-Senachwine High School until he retired.

Then things changed in his personal life.

Just before the 2022 baseball season started, his wife was diagnosed with bone cancer. On the first day of practice, she had surgery to remove part of her femur and had a knee replacement.

“It was the hardest season I’ve ever went through,” Emmons said. “It was the most success we’ve had, but it was hard. I have a 3-year-old at home. He was staying with one set of grandparents one night and the other grandparents the next night. When we’d have an early practice, I’d get home and he’d stay with me. My wife was staying in the hospital at Northwestern for a few weeks, then she was being shuffled between my parents and her parents. It was a mess.”

Emmons said she is doing “great” now as she’s starting to walk and drive again and returned to work.

He said she’s still about six weeks away from walking on her own without crutches or a walker.

The struggles made Emmons think about his work responsibilities.

“I realized I needed to be home more,” Emmons said.

Emmons found that at Pekin High School, where he was hired to teach driver’s education and be the head coach of the varsity baseball team.

“Pekin offered a chance to kind of downsize,” Emmons said. “At Henry, I was coaching cross country, I was the head baseball coach, and I helped Randy [Westerdahl] in basketball by doing the scoreboard or whatever. I also taught five different classes. I had four history classes and driver’s ed and drove kids. I had a lot going on.

“Pekin offers the chance to be home a lot more but also coach baseball. It’s a step up. It’s a 4A school. It’s kind of the best of both worlds. I kind of advance in my career, but I’m also downsizing some of my responsibilities.”

Emmons coached the Mallards for five seasons, with his best season coming this spring when Henry went 21-11 and won its first regional championship since 2016.

“Coaching at Henry was awesome mainly because of the kids and the families,” Emmons said. “The best thing about Henry was I got to know everybody. I’d coach one brother, then two years later another brother would come in, so I got to know the families really well. It took a few years to build the program, but the last couple years I think we were a combined 16 games over .500. Those kids played so hard for me, and they really played for each other. It’s very hard to leave.”

Although Emmons said it’s hard to leave, he said he feels better knowing that his former assistant, Max Kirbach, is taking over the program, and Westerdahl is staying as an assistant as well.

“If I had to leave, I couldn’t be more happy with the people I’m turning the program over to because it’ll just keep going,” Emmons said. “They’re both really good, and I’m really happy for them, and I’m happy for the kids. It made it a lot easier to leave.”

At Pekin, Emmons takes over for Larry Davis, who led the Dragons since 2001.

“Pekin plays in the Mid-Illini [Conference], which is really tough for baseball, but the Tri-County is really tough for baseball, too,” Emmons said. “We went 21-11, and we tied for fourth. It’s not anything I’m not used to. Morton and Washington are both really good. Metamora is really good. But so was Seneca, Marquette, Putnam County and Roanoke-Benson. I’m coming from a really tough baseball conference.

“I’m looking forward to it, but I feel like it’s going to be more of the same but just in a 4A setting. We’re going to have a lot of stiff competition every year, just like we did at Henry.”