During the most difficult chapter of an extraordinary coaching career, Dave Hall found support from an unlikely source: his archrival.
Hall, who’s in the midst of his 34th season as Perrysburg’s baseball coach, faced unfounded accusations from a disgruntled school board member in 2014 and 2015. At a special board meeting with about 70 community members in attendance unanimously supporting Hall, it was the guy dressed head to toe in blue who did not belong.
But Anthony Wayne baseball coach Mark Nell wasn’t there to cause trouble. His presence was in support of Hall, the man who often provides the biggest challenge to the Generals each season.
“It was really, really important to me,” Hall said. “When you have a guy that coaches your rival and you compete against all the time, for him to stand up and say that you’re a good person, that you think about kids first, that you help not only Perrysburg kids but kids throughout northwest Ohio, and work tirelessly, not everyone would do that for you. As soon as he started speaking, you knew he was speaking from the heart.”
On Friday, Hall and Nell will meet for the 47th time as head coaches of their Northern Lakes League programs, which have played in five of the past 10 district finals, including the past three years. They will shake hands before the game, do a little catching up, then want to beat the other team when the first pitch is thrown. After the game ends, their friendship will resume.
“He always asks about my kids, I always ask about his kids and grandkids. He called me and congratulated me about my daughter getting a scholarship for volleyball,” said Nell, who’s been at Anthony Wayne for 19 seasons. “We’ll roll around on the field and fight during a game. It’s all right. Then the next day, we’re fine. I tell people all the time, there are about six to eight hours a year when we don’t like each other. It’s a competitive thing. We’re both competitors and even though we’re getting up there in age, I don’t think either of us has lost that competitive edge.”
Perrysburg and Anthony Wayne are rival communities that share similar demographics, and their dislike of one another is mutual.
No matter the sport or activity, if the Yellow Jackets and Generals are competing, they want to win by the largest margin possible.
Hall and Nell — no, it’s not a rock band or law firm — wouldn’t disagree, also noting they speak by phone on an almost weekly basis. It’s not always about baseball. Family is a popular topic, as is life.
“When the games start, we want to go after each other,” said Hall, who has a 21-25 record against Nell. “Off the field, before the game, after the game, we’re friends. That’s what people don’t see. They just see us going after each other.”
The coaches, who’ve combined for more than 1,100 wins, first met in 1991, when Nell was an assistant at Bowling Green State University. In 2001, they became adversaries when Nell took the top job at Anthony Wayne, the start of a friendly rivalry that’s nearing its second decade.
The teams have combined for three trips to the state Final Four during that period — Perrysburg in 2003 and 2011, Anthony Wayne in 2018. In the 2011 district championship, Nell got a safe call at first base overturned, arguing with the umpire a Perrysburg runner was out of the basepath.
Hall took a bucket of Wiffle balls and fired them over a fence.
“I knew no one was in the way,” Hall said, laughing. “I was trying to fire our team up.”
It worked. Perrysburg won the game en route to a state runner-up finish.
Their most recent meeting was a 22-14 slugfest in which Perrysburg’s Luke Borer hit for a home run cycle and Nate Ball matched a state record with six hits.
“With us and Anthony Wayne, crazy things happen,” Hall said. “If there’s a rule that hasn’t been used in 10 years, it pops up in that game.”
When Anthony Wayne made its first state semifinal appearance last year, Nell called Hall and asked him to speak to the Generals about playing on the big stage. Hall happily accepted and offered intel on AW’s opponent to the coaches.
If Michigan is in the College Football Playoff this season, Urban Meyer probably won’t give the Wolverines a pep talk.
When Nell’s son, Jordan, applied for a job at Perrysburg, it was Hall who helped guide him through the process. Jordan ended up at Eastwood, which probably is good because his dad informed him no Perrysburg laundry would be washed with Anthony Wayne clothes.
If you count ACME baseball games during the summer, the coaches have faced each other in dozens of additional games, much to the consternation of parents from both schools.
“I have parents ask why we play Anthony Wayne all the time in the summer,” Hall said, “and I tell them because they’re the best, and that’s what we want to be, and they show up and play hard. If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. Since [Nell’s] come into our league, I’ve had to work harder, and that’s good. You need to keep working hard. It’s intense, it’s fun, it’s frustrating.”
Ohio High School Athletic Association rules limit how many days coaches can work with their player, which got Nell thinking. What if he coached Perrysburg, and Hall coached Anthony Wayne?
“Then there’d be no limitations because you aren’t coaching your own kids. I’m sure that’d go over real well, me being over in Perrysburg,” Nell said, laughing.
Hall added: “I know my kids would get coached well. I also probably wouldn’t be welcomed over there.”
What Nell might not realize is he’s always welcome in Perrysburg, because when a baseless feud arose threatening the integrity and Hall of Fame career of a respected northwest Ohio coach, he rose above the fray and defended the person who frequently stands in the way of a NLL championship.
“I called him a couple weeks ago, because I had someone complaining about him,” Nell said. “I said, ‘Listen, you’re complaining to the wrong person.’ They said, ‘Well, it’s so political in baseball.’ I said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, there isn’t a political bone in Dave Hall’s body. He’s going to put people where he thinks they need to be, to be successful for themselves and the program.’ The person was like, ‘Oh, OK.’”
First Published May 2, 2019, 11:00 p.m.
