By Steve Krah
PBR Indiana Correspondent

Follow @PBRIndiana

School colors, mascot and enrollment size has changed for Jake Burton. 

The approach for the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer has not. 

Burton enters his first season in navy blue, orange and white-clad with the North Newton Spartans in Morocco after 37 highly-successful campaigns in cardinal red and gold with the McCutcheon Mavericks in Lafayette. With 450 students, North Newton is an IHSAA Class 2A program. McCutcheon (enrollment: 1,743) is in Class 4A. 

Burton’s Mavs went 799-372 with two state championships (1999 and 2003 in 4A) and one single-class state runner-up finish (1994). The Purdue University graduate’s teams won 14 conference, 11 sectional and five regional titles. He coached two players — Clayton Richard (2003) and Logan Sowers (2014) — who were named as Indiana’s Mr. Baseball. 

Intensity and an insistence on respecting the game has followed Burton to his new job and he says his young athletes are buying in.

“The kids are great and they’re working hard,” Burton said. “They are accepting the methods behind my madness.” 

Taking lessons learned from Indiana Hall of Fame baseball coaches Ken Schreiber and Paul “Spider” Fields and Indiana Hall of Fame football coach Dave Ellison, Burton has built his coaching philosophy upon hustle and telling it like it is. 

“You don’t let anybody else out-work you,” Burton said. “You have to leave it all on the table.” 

Burton’s practices are run with precision. 

“Every minute should be doing something that’s going to make that kid better,” Burton said. “We’re not standing around idle.” 

Like Schreiber did with his legendary LaPorte High School teams, Burton runs preseason workouts before school. He has been rising early and getting to the school by 4 a.m. — an hour before his players begin their work. 

Burton played many games against Schreiber-coached teams and even changed the colors of his summer team to black and burnt orange to match the LaPorte Slicers.  

“(Schreiber) was a guy that wasn’t afraid to demand the best from kids,” Burton said. “He had a clue on how to play the game. He believed in the kids and believed in himself. He had no tolerance for people who wanted to ruin that structure.” 

The 2003 state championship came against Brownsburg, coached by LaPorte graduate Pat O’Neil. Burton’s 600th career victory came against LaPorte in 2006, by then led by head coach Scott Upp.  

Ellison, Burton’s football coach at Southwestern High School, taught the importance of being disciplined, organized and able to clearly communicate.

Like at McCutcheon, Burton has made his team rules at North Newton crystal clear. 

“Everybody knows where they stand,” Burton said. “You have to be right up front and brutally honest. I don’t cut kids, they cut themselves. Kids need to know the truth. You’ve got to hold those kids accountable. We don’t cater to kids.” 

“They’ve got to meet our standards. In real life, not everybody gets to be a winner.” 

Burton will not use size of school as a crutch. 

“When you coach kids, it doesn’t matter where you are,” Burton said. “You can say the caliber of players at 2A different than 4A. But it’s all relevant.”