A former Estevanite is heading into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame.
Don Dupuis, the former coach of the Estevan Ace Mud Mets Junior and Juvenile baseball teams in the mid to late 1960s and early 1970s, will be inducted on August 20 when the hall, located in North Battleford, welcomes its latest members.
Dupuis, who is now a Saskatoon resident, joins four other Estevan area individuals and one team who have been inducted since 2003.
When contacted at his Saskatoon home, Dupuis said he wanted to make it clear that at no time during his coaching tenure was he ever under the influence of performance enhancing drugs.
"Maybe a couple of Molson Canadians and an aspirin after some of those practices," he said with a laugh.
"I just hope that doesn't indicate that they'll let anybody in there," he added with another chuckle, when commenting on the news that his nomination had been greeted with success.
"I really want to thank those people who supported my nomination," he added.
The Dupuis nomination by Bob Burns, a 2003 inductee, had been made earlier, and the former Met leader is now being recognized for his direct contribution to the success of the Ace Mud Mets who earned league and provincial baseball titles as well as Western Canadian championships and even one trip to the national junior baseball finals.
"Those were very busy times and the years flew by. They were very full summers with league play, tournaments and then playoff schedules. On top of that we made sure we practised a lot," he said.
Dupuis said that while he was the only official coach listed with the team during this successful run, he certainly wasn't alone in developing their skills.
Beginning with the team's manager, Ray Frehlick, who set the tone for the league and provincial title runs, Dupuis said "I would pick on guys I knew who had expertise in specific areas and ask them to work with the players. I would call on Gary McKechney, for instance, to help coach those who might find themselves playing first base or Bob Petterson to help with the pitchers and my brother, Phil, could help catchers, Irwin Krueger was another. Guys like that and I'm sure I'm missing a few. But that was the plan. Then there were the volunteers, guys like Bob Burns and everyone who helped keep Met Stadium and other diamonds ready and groomed to play and I can't forget the parents who were helpful and who gave up their summers with their kids so they could play ball," he said.
Asked to explain what it was that led to his coaching success, Dupuis said he started coaching at the peewee level as a co-coach with former teacher Bob Davis.
"He was a teacher and a baseball guy so I paid attention as to how to handle some kids. Then later, I called on those other guys I mentioned, you know, guys who liked to spend time on the ball diamond."
In terms of motivation to excel, Dupuis said he spent some time in another sporting discipline to learn that side.
"I played one year of Junior B hockey with Ernie "Punch" McLean as the coach. I got a few lessons in motivation from him, for sure. I learned that the ABC's of the game have to be taught first, then you turn up the motivation and when you played for Ernie, you learned some of that."
As far as the induction ceremony is concerned, Dupuis said he is definitely thrilled to be considered among the province's selected few who have made their way into the Hall of Fame, a prized project first started by Dave Shury of North Battleford, now deceased, who was the driving force behind its inception.
Dupuis said he has attended other induction ceremonies there and noted "they put on a very good production. It's done very well and it will be a real honour to be there again this year."
Previous Estevan inductrees and the year of their entrance are: Bob Burns, 2003; Ray Frehlick, 2005; Mel Murray, 2006; Ace Mud Mets, 2008; Gary McKechney, 2009 and now Don Dupuis in 2011.
