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SRINGFIELD — Rob Cassell fills out the form the way he always does.

Eight straight years, he has applied to be the assistant coach for the baseball team. Eight straight years, head coach Mark Stoll has hired him. It's just a formality.

This year is different. Cassell, 32, applies for a new job. He wants to be the head baseball coach at Springfield High School. He calls his wife because he can't believe he's writing "head coach" on the form.

"I'm Mark's assistant, and that's the way it's always been," says Cassell, a 1994 Southeastern graduate. "To be honest with you, I'd be fine with that for the next 20 years if that's the way it could be."

That possibility vanished when Stoll was told he could be not be head baseball coach and athletic director at the new Springfield High School. He chose to keep his job as athletic director, which he still is at North, and end his 25-year career as North's baseball coach this season.

That opened the door for Cassell, who is one of three early applicants for the Springfield job.

"It's exciting," Cassell says, "but at the same time, eight years I've been going up over the hill with the same guys. You come to appreciate everything. We're like a family, so it's like losing a part of your family when you really sit down and think about it. I try not to think about it right now."

Sour setback

A dry-erase board in the hallway outside the North locker room sports one of the team's many mottoes: "One inch (game) at a time," it reads.

Stoll drew a yardstick in black marker on the board. It lists every opponent, and he circles a victory with a black marker and a loss with a red one. He left spots on the yardstick for 36 games, thinking it would take approximately that many games to win a state championship.

On April 30, the Panthers play their 21st game. They have won seven straight games. A victory over Centerville today would keep them in contention in the Greater Western Ohio Conference Central Division.

"Like our sheds?" Cassell asks Centerville coach Terry Dickten as the Elks take the field, referring to the two new storage sheds that were placed next to the North dugout before the season.

"I was just noticing them," Dickten says.

"Coach (Mark Stoll) says those are better than his first apartment," Cassell says.

Stoll puts a lot of thought into everything associated with his program. The areas where his players gather — the locker room, his office, the shower now used for ping-pong, the dugout and field — are no exception.

Every game day, the head coach posts that day's lineup by noon on a wall in the locker room.

The varsity players have their own smaller locker room at the back of the main locker room.

Stoll had an old storage room turned into a room for his team 10 years ago. The players dress for games there. They store their uniforms and equipment there. They study there, too.

The Panthers also hold Kangaroo Court inside their locker room. The seniors, who can be overruled only by Stoll, hand out penalties.

"Everybody's guilty, basically," senior Joey Borders says.

Early this season, Jimmy Powell and Jordan Moore were cited for not locking their lockers. Austin Bailey's infraction was sticking the decal on his helmet backward. Jake Ceyler forgot his fleece pullover for a game, and Devon Lenz wore another player's helmet while at bat.

The Kangaroo Court keeps the mood light, but the season darkens against Centerville.

Senior Mitch Monke cruises through five scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts. The Panthers feel confident and loose.

"Don't wipe off; you look good dirty," junior Justin Williams yells to Powell after the freshman dives back to first base to avoid a pick-off tag.

In the sixth, Centerville burns North with seven runs, and the Elks go on to win 8-4. The next night, Sidney destroys North 19-2.

"It didn't matter what I called," pitching coach Doug Stoll says. "They hit it. It was like they knew what I was calling ahead of time."

Four days later, on May 5, Wayne bounces back from an earlier loss to North with a 2-1 victory.

A promising season rolls foul.

Back on track

Sophomore second baseman Trent Elliott arrives at batting practice May 7 with a red cast on his right hand. He won't be playing tonight against South in the final game between the two city rivals.

"Hey, lefty," Doug says to him.

The night before, playing against Fairmont at the Athletes in Action complex in Xenia, Elliott slid head-first into second base and jammed his hand on the bag, breaking three fingers.

North won the game, 5-0, behind a three-hit shutout by Borders. On the way back, the bus passed through Yellow Springs. The players spotted comedian Dave Chappelle, who lives in town, on the sidewalk.

"Hey, Dave!" they yelled.

"Did you win?" Chappelle asked.

Doug knows something about the entertainment business. For 12 years, he has worked as a DJ on the weekends when he's not working at Fuel Systems Inc. His nickname is Fresh. All the players call him Fresh.

Today, Doug is as much chaperone as coach. North brings six extra players from the junior varsity team to the game against South at Carleton Davidson Stadium.

"We don't have this many troops in Iraq," Doug says.

Before the season, Mark Stoll decided not to cut any players this year. He wanted everyone who wanted to be a part of the final season to get that chance. Now some of those players travel with the varsity team for the first time — for at least one night.

North wins 10-3 in a game marred by two rain delays, but the coaches don't like the performance. Sometimes North walks a fine line.

The dugout humor — "Def Comedy Jam," Mark calls it during one game — keeps the team loose, but it can hurt.

"There's no sense of urgency," Mark tells the players early in the game.

The coaches can find intensity in seconds. At one point, Mark rushes into the dugout to have words with Bailey about a base-running mistake. The same mistake causes Cassell to spike the scorebook.

What happens one moment doesn't always carry over to the next. The coaches focus on the big picture.

"They're kids. It's a roller coaster," he says. "You never know how they're going to show up. You've got seven seniors. This is their last week of school, and it's really hard to keep their interest right now."

One fun Friday

Cassell calls Mark at 6:50 a.m. May 9. Mark knows his assistant coach has planned a pregame ceremony for him before tonight's Fairmont game, his last regular-season home game. He doesn't know the celebration's going to start early.

Cassell tells him there will be a team meeting in the locker room at

7:30 a.m., and Mark needs to be there.

"I just thought something's wrong, or somebody's sick," Mark says. "I didn't have any idea."

He arrives to find the whole team waiting for him. The players are wearing T-shirts with his caricature on the front and the words, "He is North Baseball," on the back.

Ray Collins and Prentiss McDanel paint the same saying on ceiling tiles they take from a room in the soon-to-be-demolished high school.

On the field before the game, Springfield Mayor Warren Copeland declares it Mark Stoll Day. Mark tells the crowd, "Dorothy was right. There's no place like home."

The day then gets better. Mark couldn't write a better ending than this — not even with the lucky scorebook pencil.

North scores three runs in the bottom of the seventh to beat Fairmont 4-3. Monke grounds out with the bases loaded to bring in Julius Storey with the winning run.

Running down the third-base line with Storey, urging him on to home plate, Mark tears a calf muscle. Doug says later it looked as if somebody shot his brother.

"Did somebody hit me with a baseball?" Mark asks.

The ending is the first of many emotional goodbyes.

"I was at a loss for words," Williams says, "and that's hard for me because I've always got something to say."

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