FORSYTH, Ill. (WAND) -- Finally putting away the bat and gloves and hanging up the whistle.
"When August rolls around and the busses start running and school starts and it's going to get real that no longer teaching and and no longer coaching," Sean Martin said.
Sean Martin retired as head baseball coach at Maroa-Forsyth after 27 years.
"It's going to be a big shock. It's going to be a lot different. Not seeing the kids at school and and not walking out here and seeing this again. It's it's going to be different. It's going to be it's going to be hard," Sean said.
"Kind of emotional about looking back at stuff and I can remember is I was, you know, 4 or 5 years old running around in the batting cages going down in the woods during games and stuff like that from as long as I can remember," Ty Martin, Sean's Son, said.
Athletic director Phil Appleby worked with Martin for more than two decades, as both a coworker and as his AD.
"For a long time. It was it was pretty much on, you know, I mean, he took care of the field. He did everything down there," Phil Applebee, Maroa-Forsyth AD, said.
Finally, Martin and Maroa-Forsyth broke through and went to state in 2022.
"The feeling was better late than never because a lot of coaches coach their whole life and never, you know, get to go," Sean said. "It made my career as a coach and and to be able to get over the hump and get to that, that part of the season where you're still playing in the state term is pretty special. And, you know, it's something I'll never forget."
"He had a lot of years where he was getting close, like he'd get to a sectional and we'd we'd lose by a run. And we had some good conversations about how do you how do you get past that?" Applebee said.
The question everybody wants to know what's next.
"I got a lot of hobbies. I like to hunt and fish and and, I'm pretty active. My wife's retired, and and we want to do some traveling and things, so, I'm not going to have problems, being or staying busy," Sean said.
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