New Baseball Coaches At Lincoln, Prairie Grove

Prairie Grove became the second local school to switch baseball coaches for the 2019 season with the abrupt resignation of Chris Mileham Thursday.

Lincoln previously replaced Justin Bounds, who coached the Wolves four seasons, with Reed Mendoza, who served as assistant baseball coach last season and is also head junior high football coach as well as a varsity assistant in football.

Now, Prairie Grove has installed an administrator, Jed Davis, recently named seventh- and eighth-grade principal for Prairie Grove Middle School, as interim head baseball coach.

Regardless of what Mileham may or may not have allowed to transpire at practice — allegations were serious enough that he resigned — Mileham incorporated community within the program.

During Prairie Grove home games, visiting teams and coaches were fed home-cooked meals with Shawn Fidler manning the outdoor grill. Mileham procured a minor league baseball scoreboard and had it installed at Rieff Park. Recently, the names of Prairie Grove baseball alumni Jalen Beeks (Class of 2011) and Ty Tice (Class of 2014) were added to the scoreboard. Beeks pitched for Crowder College and the University of Arkansas before getting drafted by the Boston Red Sox. He made his Major League debut in 2018 and was traded to Tampa Bay. Beeks is now part of the Rays’ pitching staff. Tice attended UCA on a baseball scholarship and was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays. Tice is currently pitching for the Dunedin Bluejays in the Florida State League, a Class A Advanced minor league affiliate for Toronto.

In December, Mileham worked out an agreement to raffle off Beeks’ No. 68 Tampa Bay Rays jersey as a fundraiser for the Tiger baseball team. Beeks personally presented the jersey to winner, Marcresa Hattenhauer, drawn during a basketball game in December.

In March of 2017 Mileham and Tigers hosted the first annual Jarren Sorters Memorial Baseball Tournament, an event the team will host again this season as a fundraiser for the Play4Jarren Foundation, a non-profit Christian organization.

This past November, Mileham pioneered a Prairie Grove High School Baseball community service project in collaboration with other teachers. The Tigers collected old newspaper bins from the Northwest Arkansas Times and placed them around town for the R.E.A.D. Initiative. The newspaper bins were used as little free libraries all over town for patrons to leave a book and take a book that they would like to have to encourage reading at home. Part 2 of the project took place in the classroom with the PGHS baseball team going on Fridays to the elementary school and reading to students to help promote literacy in schools.

Mileham submitted his resignation as Prairie Grove head baseball coach Thursday, effective immediately. Mileham has taught physical education and health and coached the Tigers for three seasons, 2016-2018, although his actual tenure as head coach has been almost four years.

Mileham was hired to replace Mitch Cameron, who resigned in May of 2015 to take a job at Rogers Heritage. Mileham was hired during a special board meeting June 8, 2015. Mileham brought a plethora of experience to Prairie Grove having coached baseball at various levels, including minor league, junior college, American Legion and high school.

Down the road in Lincoln in 2018, Bounds’ wife Lindsay operated the scoreboard, kept statistics and served as announcer while mixing music throughout the regular season. It must be noted that in its last season as a 4A school, Lincoln successfully hosted both the District 4A-1 and 4A North Regional tournaments in 2018. Yet for the regular season it was Bounds & Bounds shouldering the load of duties.

Bounds took over for Brad Harris, who resigned as Lincoln head baseball coach in the spring of 2014. Bounds also did not return as assistant football coach in 2018. He teaches physical education at Lincoln Middle School.

What both programs need now is for the community to rally around new or interim coaches and support the boys playing baseball. Athletes playing still have to swing the bat as well as catch and throw the ball against opponents trying to outdo them.

Community support will be essential for Mendoza, at Lincoln, and Davis, at Prairie Grove, to get a reasonable chance for success this season.