Putting his indelible mark on baseball
By Bill Wagner
Bernie Walter, the winningest public school baseball coach in Maryland history, died Friday night following a battle with cancer. The longtime Linthicum resident was 78.
Walter compiled a 609-185 career record during 37 seasons at Arundel High. He led the Wildcats to a Maryland-record 10 state championships. He also was athletic director for 27 years at the Gambrills school, establishing several groundbreaking physical education programs.
Walter is the only high school coach in Maryland history to capture state titles in four decades. He also directed the Wildcats to 14 regional and 16 county championships.
Walter always maintained a special fondness for his first state championship club at Arundel. That team, led by ace pitchers Neal Herrick and Frank Parreira, beat Potomac 3-1 in the final.
“Bernie had the uncanny ability to be a very demanding coach as well as being a mentor — that’s a unique combination,” Parreira said. “Bernie taught you how to play the game from a strategic standpoint. You knew as a player when you went on the field your team was not going to get outcoached.”
Walter was inducted into the Anne Arundel County Sports Hall of Fame in 2001 and is one of only 16 high school coaches enshrined in the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the inaugural National High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2007.
In 2017, Walter became the first — and still only — Maryland high school coach selected for the National Federation Hall of Fame. Tut
O’Hara, Walter’s assistant at Arundel from 1986 through 2009, said his mentor always stressed that coaching was teaching.
“What made Bernie such a great coach was his ability to make players better,” O’Hara said. “I think the way we practiced under pressure was critical to our success.
“Arundel baseball practices were always harder than games. Bernie believed there was a certain way to play the game, and he made sure every member of the team bought into that.”
Walter was voted the most athletic member of the graduating class at Brooklyn
Park in 1959, having captained and starred for both the basketball and baseball teams. He was a three-year letterman in baseball at Maryland, serving as captain of the 1963 squad as a senior under coach Elton “Jack” Jackson.
After coaching the Maryland freshman baseball team as a graduate student in 1964, Walter entered the teaching ranks at Archbishop Curley High in East Baltimore. He served as an assistant to legendary head coach Al Frank for seven years before accepting a physical education department position at Arundel High.
Walter served as an assistant coach to Jerry Mears in football, to Buddy Hepfer in wrestling and to Ron Evans in track and field. His first head coaching position was in lacrosse, a sport about which he knew nothing.
Arundel AD Steve Carroll named Walter the baseball coach in 1974 and the rest is history. He led the Wildcats to winning seasons from 1975-2009, when he stepped down.
Walter had a pair of important disciples in longtime assistants O’Hara and Nick Jauschnegg, who helped instill all the standards of the “Arundel Way” in the players. The “Arundel Way” was cataloged in a booklet that became known to players as the “Bible” and contained everything from inspirational quotes to hitting, fielding and pitching instructions, to the proper way to put on a uniform. It was distributed to players at the start of every season.
Walter is survived by his wife of 56 years, Barbara, along with daughter Kelly, her husband Rudy Llobet and five grandchildren.