You can take the game away from the player, but you can't take the player away from the game.

Derick Reis played varsity baseball for Jim Thorpe, beginning in 2001. Three of those years, he played under John Searfoss, who was a stellar ballplayer for the Olympians back in the late eighties.Together, they came back to baseball at the school two years ago.In 2014, Reis became the head coach and immediately hired Searfoss as his assistant.When Reis played under Searfoss, he led Thorpe to two league championships and three district playoff appearances before Searfoss resigned in Reis's senior year to help his wife with their newborn daughter."Derick was a five-tool player," said Searfoss. "He was such a good player, the game came natural to him.""I was retired for three years from coaching any baseball before I said yes to Derick," he said. Searfoss was also a JT assistant from 1993-1997 before he became the head mentor in 1998.Despite his resignation during Reis's senior year, Searfoss helped his former player get recruited to play for Division 1 La Salle University.While finishing his playing career at Kutztown, Reis had a desire to coach and he knew if he could become the head coach someday at JT, the first person he would ask to be his assistant would be Searfoss."I had tremendous respect for John when he was my head coach and I still implement a good part of his philosophy in my program, today," said Reis. "John's a no-nonsense coach who believes success begins with discipline. This is my approach, too. It helps weed out the kids who don't buy into our, 'you have to be all in or you're all out' speech we make each year to our prospective players."When asked how difficult it was to make the transition from being a head coach to becoming an assistant, Searfoss said it did take some time to make the adjustment."I'm used to running the show, but this is Derick's team now. We have done a good job blending our ideas in striving to reach our team goals," he said."I rely a lot on John's experience for practice planning and in-game decisions," said Reis. "At times I will do something my way rather than his, which at first was difficult for me, but John is easy to work with. We respect our differences of opinion."Reis and Searfoss coach with distinctly different styles."John's more intense and will be very vocal, while you could describe me as more laid back," said Reis. "It's good for the kids to see both styles."When Searfoss, who teaches history at the high school, was the head coach, he would tell his players that if they made it through his tough love program, they would leave as student-athletes. He added a promise that he would be there for any of them if they ever needed anything.His promise holds true to this day. Geoff Kelowitz played for Searfoss 16 years ago and was one of the best baseball players to ever wear the red, white, and blue."Geoff stayed in touch with me when I had cancer," said Searfoss, who is now free of the disease. "He has muscular dystrophy now and I am there for him for whatever I can do to help.""John is the most genuine and sincere person I know," said Reis, who spends time in the offseason turkey hunting with him. "I was disappointed that he didn't coach me my senior year, but I respect the fact that it's family first with him. I loved playing for him and now I love coaching with him. The way I see it, we really have two head coaches at Jim Thorpe."Searfoss recalled the moment he came out of retirement."I have to admit I got chills when I put on the baseball cap again that I had worn for so many years before."He has been a part of Jim Thorpe baseball since he played Little League in 1978."Derick has given me an opportunity to continue to coach the game I love for the town I love.""John and I have this program on the right track to get back to the glory days when I played and he was my head coach," said Reis.The coming back together in full circle by Derick Reis and John Searfoss is already beginning to result in success on the diamond as the Olympians are off to a good start in hopes of making the playoffs this year.*****Every Thursday during the spring sports season, the Times News will publish its annual "Spring Sports Notebook" reflecting back on the week that was, and highlighting both individual and team accomplishments, as well as interesting information that may have occurred in games and matches. The weekly notebook will cover baseball, softball, tennis, and lacrosse, and will consist of storylines from the previous seven days (Wednesday-Tuesday). Today's notebook will reflect back on all the happenings from the beginning of the spring sports season up through this past Tuesday. Times News sports writer Jason Boris will once again be handling the compilation of notes and is encouraging all local coaches to email him with noteworthy information that can be used in this column. Emails can be sent to

jboris@tnonline.com.BASEBALLKINGS OF THE DIAMOND... With a 5-0 record, the Marian baseball team is the lone remaining unbeaten team in the Times News area; however, even more impressive is the way that the Colts have been dominating their opponents. In those five games, Marian is outscoring its opponents 52-1. They have scored nine or more runs in four of five games and posted shutouts in four of five games. Freeland MMI is the only team to score a run against Marian this season.A HISTORY LESSON... Marian's 10-0 shutout of Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg on March 24 marked the 600th win in program history. Currently, the Colts baseball program has a combined record of 604-430-2 in 1,036 games played since the program's inaugural season in 1956. The program has had seven coaches during that span: Hugh "Wink" Gallagher (48-51), Jim Kroculick (6-5), John Roman (7-9), Pat Morgans (66-118-1), Charles "Chink" Connolly (179-92-1), Jeff Nietz (276-151) and current head coach Tony Radocha (22-4). The program's first victory was a 6-1 win against Girardville Catholic on April 22, 1956. The program's 600th win was also a no-hitter (SEE BELOW). Marian's first no-hitter was thrown by Tony Pajakinas on June 3, 1966, against Immaculate Heart Academy.NO HITTERS... There were three no-hitters recorded during the first three weeks of the baseball season. On March 24, Marian had four pitchers combine for a five-inning no-hitter in a 10-0 victory over Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg. Joe Nahas pitched the first two innings, while Dante Salerno, Nick Kubishin and Teague Schmidt pitched an inning of relief. The Four Colts combined for eight strikeouts and two walks in the outing. Five days later on March 29, Northern Lehigh's Austin Lancsak (five innings) and Ashton Bevans (one inning) combined for a no-hitter against Moravian Academy, but it wasn't enough as the Bulldogs lost 2-1 because of two critical errors in the field. Lancsak struck out seven Lions in the hard-luck loss. Moravian Academy was also victimized by Palmerton's Zach Svetik on April 11. In the 13-0 victory, Svetik pitched five no-hit innings, which included eight strikeouts and two walks.SEEING 20/20... Pleasant Valley scored 21 runs on March 30, en route to a 21-4 victory over Pocono Mountain West. Brett Hardy and Nathan Coursey had three hits and three runs apiece, while Kieran Kearns and Dakota George tallied four RBIs apiece. On April 6, the Northwestern Tigers earned their stripes by banging out 20 hits in an 18-7 victory over Southern Lehigh. Jake Augustus, Tyler Schreiner and Isaac Fatzinger all had three hits apiece to pace Northwestern.SOFTBALLTAMAQUA'S BIG BOPPER... Tamaqua's Cailyn Joseph became the first area player to hit multiple home runs in the same game this season. Joseph connected for two long balls (a solo homer and a two-run shot) in Tamaqua's 10-0 victory over Jim Thorpe on April 8. With a solo home run on March 29 against Hamburg, Joseph currently has three round-trippers on her resume, which currently leads The Times News area.MORE 20/20 VISION... There were several offensive explosions in the first few weeks of the season. The Marian softball team combined for 20 hits in a 16-6 victory over Weatherly on April 6, with Reese Erbe leading the way with four hits. The Palmerton softball team needed just three innings to score 20 runs against Moravian Academy (20-0) on April 11. The Lady Bombers were led by Kendra Pekurney (3 hits, 3 RBIs), Alyssa Olewin (3 hits, 3 runs), Erika Easton (3 RBIs) and Trish Sterling (3 RBIs).EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT... The Lehighton softball team currently sits with a 4-1 record; however, in three of those five games, the Lady Indians needed extra innings to decide the outcome. On April 1, Lehighton suffered a 9-7 setback against Northern Lehigh in eight innings. On April 8, they rallied for a 9-7 victory over Blue Mountain in eight innings. Then, on April 12, the Tribe battled into the 11th inning before pulling out a 3-2 victory over Tamaqua.GOING, GOING, GONE... Four of the 10 Times News softball teams have hit home runs this seasons, but only Northern Lehigh has multiple players that have cleared the bases. Taylor Herman, Sage Hargreaves and Kaitlin Hoffman all have home runs this season for the Bulldogs. Herman belted a grand slam on March 24 against East Stroudsburg North, while Hoffman has two solo home runs to her name - one behind Tamaqua's Joseph (3) for the area lead.TENNISSINGLED OUT... The Lehighton and Palmerton tennis teams are off to strong starts this season, thanks in large part to successful singles play by both squads. No singles player from either team has a losing record this season, with the Indians combining to go 15-9 in singles action, while the Bombers sport a singles mark of 23-13. Lehighton is led by Tegan Durishin (3-2), Josh Knappenberger (5-2), Thomas Phelan (4-2), Andrea Schaeffer (3-2) and Mike Pados (1-1). Palmerton's singles contingent includes Sal Melo (7-5), Seth Andress (7-5) and Nate Andress (9-3).LACROSSEACHIEVING HER GOALS... First impressions are always important and Pleasant Valley sophomore Savannah Bauman is certainly making a positive one in the Bears' inaugural lacrosse season. In the first five games of the year, Bauman has amassed 19 goals to lead her team in scoring. Bauman has scored three or more goals in four of those games, with her best performance being a six-goal outing against Liberty on March 31.