Baseball field named after volunteer coach Jeff Boles

Former Lansing High School baseball and football head coach Ed Redmond is careful with using the job title of “coach” around everyone who coaches. After nearly 40 years of coaching at the high school level, he knows how difficult the profession can be.

Although longtime Lansing volunteer assistant coach Jeff Boles was never given an official coaching title, it didn’t take long for Redmond to start calling him “coach Boles.”

“He had earned that title,” Redmond said. “Sometimes, when people use the coach label, … it’s like, so what? When I call someone a coach, that’s pretty honorable because I think coaches have a huge role in our society with our young people.”

Boles, who has cerebral palsy, has helped coach the football, boys and girls basketball and baseball teams at Lansing since he was a student manager in 1984. Since then, Redmond and former Lansing football, basketball and baseball coach Stuart Dean said Boles has not only helped them on the field but has also served as inspiration for how someone can overcome difficult circumstances.

Recently, that inspiration was honored by the Lansing Parks and Recreation Department when it named one of the recreational baseball fields after him. So, this spring, when you drive up to the town athletic fields, you can walk over to Jeff Boles Field to watch a game or have a catch.

“He’s always gone above and beyond to help out every team since he’s been old enough to help out,” said Patrick Tyrrell, Lansing Parks and Recreation supervisor. “His message is about overcoming things, and he shows that people can overcome certain disabilities and be productive.”

Dean had Boles, who was still active as a volunteer for Lansing during the last football season, as a volunteer assistant coach in football, boys basketball and baseball during his more than 30 years of coaching at Lansing. He said it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.

“He’s a Lansing treasure, and he’s inspirational not only to me as a coach but the players he interacts with,” he said. “He’s dedicated his life to athletics in Lansing, so it’s impressive that they named the field after him.”

It wasn’t just the on-field help that Boles has provided Lansing coaches throughout the years. Dean said Boles has a way of getting through to the kids that he hasn’t seen in most of the coaches he’s worked with.

The fact that Boles was never given the coach title didn’t matter to Dean.

“I always treated him like an assistant coach, and the interactions he had with kids was his specialty,” Dean said. “He was another set of eyes that has seen a lot. You could bounce a lot off of him. I’ve never been one to think I can see it all so it was beneficial for me.”

Those interactions with the kids became something of legend around Lansing. Boles sometimes has a difficult time with verbal communication, but in moments when the team needed him to inspire and motivate, it was easy to understand what he was trying to say.

“I can remember numerous occasions, usually when things weren’t going well, when Jeff could come in with a comment about what adversity really is,” Dean said. “He’s dealt with adversity his whole life but hasn’t let it define him”

Boles has worked for the Finger Lakes Independence Center as an advocacy specialist for more than 20 years. Through that work, he has advocated for members of the community with disabilities to be included in all parts of life, especially recreational activities.

That passion is something Redmond saw work first hand on his football players. In a world that can be cruel, he said Boles has an ability to make teenagers listen.

“I didn’t get the sense there was pity,” Redmond said. “Sometimes, we fall into that. People bought into what he was doing, and when he talked, they listened intently. For teenagers to do that is pretty impressive.”

No time was that more true than after a Bobcat loss.

“He always had something to say after games, and he didn’t have a hard time being critical,” Redmond said. “He would say the ways we needed to get better. It was never really sugar coated. We won a lot of games, so we didn’t have a lot of those talks, but there nights that we got beat and didn’t play well where Jeff really got after them.”

What has always stood out to Redmond, who coached at Lansing for 24 years, is the way Boles didn’t let cerebral palsy define or diminish him. The two were neighbors on Lansingville Road for 10 years, and many afternoons ended with the two of them sitting at the family picnic table in the yard, swapping stories and talking about life.

That’s where Redmond saw that the passion and dedication didn’t only exist in the hallways or on the field at Lansing High. It’s who Boles was as a person.

“He never talked about the disability as a negative; he talked about it as something that motivated and inspired him to be a better person and help others get through their situation,” Redmond said. “I can never remember him having any pity or had a bad word to say about anything.”

Redmond also saw him as a student, when he first came to Lansing as a teacher and coach while Boles was in school. In addition to athletics, he saw nothing was going to stop Boles in the classroom either.

“Jeff never missed a beat [academically],” Redmond said. “He took meticulous notes in class and really learned how to transcribe from verbal to written and had a great memory to boot. He was a shining star as a student. Passion is the first word that comes to mind — passion for athletics, passion for competition and being part of something that was bigger than him.”

To so many in Lansing, from the high school to the Parks and Recreation Department and throughout the community, the impact of Boles has been felt for more than 30 years. Redmond and Dean said naming one of the fields after him will serve as a constant reminder of what he has done for his community and his school.

Even if people already know of Boles’ work, both said a reminder like that is important and necessary for the Lansing community.

“I’ve never met anyone who had a bad word to say about Jeff Boles, and he’s one of  the few people in a small town like Lansing [where that is the case],” Redmond said. “It wasn’t because he had a disability; it was that people truly looked up to him and were inspired by him.”

And more people are sure to be inspired by Boles, as he remains a staunch supporter of the Lansing Bobcats.

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.