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Crain Excited to Return to Alma Mater

ALMA - Jason Crain is making the jump from high school coach to college. The opportunity to lead the program at his alma mater Alma proved to be too much to pass up for the 46-year-old, who was recently named the new head coach at the Division III school.

“This is exciting,” noted Crain, who coached at Plymouth High School the last five years. “It’s a place I not only played, but enjoyed being there around baseball.”

The Canton native hopes to bring success to a program that has not won a Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association baseball title since sharing it with Hope in 1999. The last outright crown for Alma came in 1987.

“Alma actually has the second most MIAA conference championships,” explained Crain, whose wife Melisa is also an Alma grad. “We need to get back to those ways. Obviously, there has been a drought but coach (Jake) Sabol did a phenomenal job of changing the culture. They made some steps forward the last few years and we’ll try to build on that by adding depth. We want to be more well-rounded in our roster so we can be two or three deep at every position.”

Alma’s best season in the past decade came in 2016 when the Scots went 29-15 overall and 18-10 in the league. After dropping to 15-25 a year later, Alma rebounded to finish 24-19 this past season and third in the conference at 16-12. Sabol resigned in July to take over the Northwood baseball program, opening up the position that Crain took.

“We want to win the MIAA championship,” Crain said of his main goal at his alma mater. “Adrian’s the class of the league (winning the title 10 years in a row), Hope has a great program and Kalamazoo has been good of late. There are others that have good programs as well and we’re trying to be a part of that. It’s something we’ve done with coach Sabol, now we want to take the next step.”

That will come with implementing a philosophy Crain used at Plymouth where he led the Wildcats to four straight Division 1 district titles, winning 128 games - the most in program history.

“The program in a nutshell … we want to put pressure on the other team,” Crain explained about his plans at Alma. “We want to put the bat on the ball, throw strikes and make them swing and play good defense. That’s one recipe to creating a sustainable winning culture. You hope the program avoids ups and downs. You want to be decent every year and be great in some.”

Alma athletic director Steven Rackley is pleased to have Crain on board.

"He brings an unmatched energy and a deep respect of Alma College along with thoroughness and attention to detail," Rackley said in a hometownlife.com story. "We look forward to seeing the work he'll put into this program come out on the field."

Moving up to the next level as a head coach does bring some trepidation.

“I call it a challenge with how the recruiting process goes,” Crain said about his biggest uneasiness. “We ran our high school program like a college so that philosophy will translate over. While there are things you can always tweak and do better, the challenge is in how the recruiting model works.

“I think so far it’s going well. We have a handful committed to coming here and a lot more we’re talking to. We’re looking for guys that know how to compete. We have a family atmosphere with no lines between seniors and freshmen. We’re recruiting guys to fit our mold.”

Helping ease any concerns are a pair of assistant coaches Crain knows well.

“We’re fortunate to have great assistants and one is coming with me,” Crain said about Scott Niemiec, who played at the University of Michigan and was the hitting coach at Plymouth. “He’s a high school friend of mine that played at Salem when I played at Canton.”

Eric Frontzak, the number one pitcher on the Alma roster last year as a senior, has also joined the staff.

“He’s working with our pitchers and helping me bridge the age gap,” said Crain, a 1991 graduate of Canton High School. “We’re trying to develop a program with a great team of guys while being careful to add selfless people.”

Crain understands the difference between high school and college players.

“It’s about the maturity of the players,” Crain explained. “It’s much different in college than high school. In college they’re there for a reason, they want to get better and put the work in. You just need to give them the structure to do that.”

While admitting to never really thinking about leaving Plymouth for a college coaching opportunity, now that the decision has been made Crain will not hesitate to seek advice from others.

“Michigan State head coach Jake Boss played ball with me at Alma,” Crain noted. “I talk to him for guidance. He’s a great resource.

“And coach (Bill) Klenk my past coach at Alma is another great resource. I also lean on coach Sable. We have a good working relationship and he helped me navigate through this. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, I just want to put my spin on it.”

All the while loving every bit of what he is doing while in charge of the program at his alma mater.

“I truly feel I am doing it for the guys,” Crain said. “I love competing .. I love that part of it. I just feel blessed to do something for a living that I love as much as baseball.”